Plans for the final phase of the Star Metals District in West Midtown include a 33-story residential tower. If approved, the new building would be the tallest in the neighborhood.
Florida-based Allen Morris Company and its joint venture development partner, Atlanta-based Animal, are seeking to build three mixed-used buildings at Star Metals District, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The three proposed buildings would add 800 more residential units, 100,000 square feet of retail space, 200 hotel rooms and a public plaza with pedestrian pathways, the AJC reported.
Renderings of the buildings show lush foliage on balconies and tree-lined paths.
The developers, however, need a variance from the city to build the 33-story building. The district caps new construction at 225 feet and the proposed tower would be 340 feet high.
“The height variance is being requested to enable the applicant to provide increased pedestrian-activated space at the sidewalk level,” says the variance request application to the city.
“In exchange for the additional building height, the applicant proposes to reduce allowable building coverage from 85% to 60% (excluding below grade parking) rather than spreading the allowed development horizontally across the site. The areas not improved with buildings are intended to provide pedestrian accessible spaces including plazas, restaurant patios and pedestrian amenities,” according to the application.
Neighborhood Planning Unit E voted at its Nov. 12 meeting to support the height variance. City officials could vote on the variance in December.
“After four months of careful and thorough consideration, NPU-E voted to support the amended variance for the reduced height variance with a condition that the property’s centrally located plaza will remain open and accessible to the public at all times without barriers to access,” according to a statement from NPU E to Rough Draft.
Star Metals District spans just over three acres along Howell Mill Road and already includes an office building and an apartment tower. Another apartment tower, Stella, is under construction.
This story has been updated to include NPU E voted to support the height variance.
