Hunter Richardson, development director for OliverMcMillan, told the Buckhead Business Association on Oct. 20 that the name of its Buckhead Village development, Buckhead Atlanta, isn’t really what’s most important about the project.
The company is pumping $600 million into the former “Streets of Buckhead” project that came to an abrupt stop in 2010. The target open date for Buckhead Atlanta, an upscale mixed use shopping center in the Buckhead Village area, is 2013, but some residents with the Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods think the name is too generic.
Richardson said the name makes sense.
“The intent was for this to be part of the Village of Buckhead as opposed to being a development with a name,” he said. “So the intent was to create a ability to market this to the community that we’re after so they would know where they were, more so than promoting a development.”
“It wasn’t so much about the name as much as the branding so we could market it it,” Richardson added.
Richardson praised the original developer, Ben Carter, for his vision.
“He did it against a lot of currents that were working against him,” Richardson said, telling the audience that OliverMcMillan is painstakingly going over every detail of the development since it took over the project.. ” … We believe this is going to be one of the more intense urban environments you’ve seen in Atlanta to date.”
