The company resurrecting the defunct Streets of Buckhead project – now called Buckhead Atlanta – says it plans to begin construction on the Buckhead Village shopping center in the spring, if the economy cooperates.
“Currently, we are on target to restart construction in the spring of 2012, but the market will really dictate that date,” said Hunter Richardson, development director for project developer OliverMcMillan. “[Our crews are] regularly on the site, doing prep work and clean up. We recently installed new fencing and signage, with the goal of making the site as attractive as possible until we restart construction.”
Sam Massell, president of the Buckhead Coalition, said leasing is the key to moving the project along.
“Anybody who’s realistic has to understand that in the real estate arena, things only move as fast as leasing takes place and they’re in the throes of doing just that,” Massell said. “As they make more leases, they’ll be closer to breaking ground and continuing.”
Richardson declined to name any future tenants, saying it’s too early.
“We typically don’t announce tenants this far in advance of a project’s opening,” Richardson said. “What I can tell you is OliverMcMillan is focused on creating an urban lifestyle that fits in and helps build on the Atlanta community.”
The project was renamed and reimagined after the proposed Streets of Buckhead development came to a grinding halt in 2010. Investors forced original developer Ben Carter out of the project. OliverMcMillan, based in San Diego, Calif., took over in May 2011.
Richardson said the company is still going through the lengthy permitting process with the city of Atlanta to get the $600 million project ready. He said the plans call for constructing the restaurant, retail and residential portions at the same time, and the company doesn’t anticipate there will be any significant road closures as a result. The projected finish date is still 2013, he said.
There is still disagreement about the name of the project among some members of the Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods, who say “Buckhead Atlanta” is too generic. A critic of the name is Gordon Certain, who said he is otherwise glad to see the project moving forward. He called its current condition an “eyesore” and said it reminds him of the poem “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The poem reads in part, “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!/Nothing beside remains: round the decay/Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare.”
Richardson said the company is sticking with the Buckhead Atlanta name.
“The Buckhead Atlanta name signifies a departure from the original concept of a single designation development and a move toward a mixed-use community that will fit seamlessly within the existing Buckhead Village,” he said.
Lolita Browning Jackson, president of the Buckhead Business Association, said, “it’s great to see progress.”
“I believe everyone is elated to see any movement and even the beautification of the wall that we see already lets us know that there is more to come,” she said. “Once the project is complete, it will have a tremendous impact on Buckhead and those throughout the Atlanta metropolitan area who come to Buckhead for business, to shop, or even have dinner.”
Massell said the completion of the project will remind everyone that the Buckhead community remains, “The shopping Mecca of the South.”
“You have to recognize this is where it’s at,” Massell said. “They come here from all over. It’s a destination. It’s not a casual event. … It’s a destination for shopping like New York used to be for Atlantans and adding to it will have an increased impact on the retail dollar.”
