The Dunwoody City Council responded positively to GID Development Group’s request to modify plans for the $2 billion High Street campus along Perimeter Center Parkway at the DeKalb-Fulton border.
The property owner is requesting to amend its approved site plan, swapping proposed apartments for a central greenspace and luxury retail in the next phase of its 10-block development. The first of two public hearings was on Oct. 13, and council members will vote on Oct. 26.
Mayor Lynn Deutsch said she thinks the proposed swap at High Street is critical. The change is exclusive to Block 6, in the center of the proposed 10-block development along Perimeter Center West.
“I think people don’t necessarily know what they’re seeing at High Street; they don’t know what’s there,” Deutsch said. “They see two big walls … I’m excited to see this change, and I hope it happens relatively quickly.”
High Street phase two
Council Member Stacey Harris said DeKalb County approved the 2007 zoning conditions for the 36-acre property a year before Dunwoody incorporated, but its buildout has been delayed.
“High Street was the parting gift to the City of Dunwoody,” Harris said. “GID, the current owners, actually held onto it through the recession, through COVID, and now they’re finally building it. I love phase one, and I’m looking forward to phase two.”
The three-phase development is limited to 1,500 condominiums, 1,500 apartments, 400,000 square feet of retail space, a combined 635,000 square feet of office space, and two hotels. After phase one, the developer wants to change its 2018 site plan while maintaining the 2007 use limits.
The first phase, completed in 2024, includes 150,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, 600 luxury apartments, 90,000 square feet of new loft office space, and 222,000 square feet of existing office space connected by a .75-acre park.
Dunwoody Senior Planner Madalyn Smith said staff recommends adding two new conditions to the 27 established in High Street’s original zoning. The conditions require on-street parking to be parallel only, and the completion of a streetscape along Perimeter Center Parkway.
Carson Land, vice president of mixed-use development for GID, said his team is on board with all of staff’s proposed zoning conditions
“TriNet choosing Dunwoody and High Street specifically was a really great validation of the idea of High Street,” Land said. “That the sum is greater than the parts, and all these different components create a place where people want to be.”
‘Ceremonial entrance’
Land said the change to Block 6 will open up the center of the planned campus to pedestrians, and agreed with Deustch’s “wall” comments. There will be a parking podium below the retail and greenspace, with an internal street and sidewalk network that includes on-street parking.
“You see phase one existing as this dynamic downtown environment, but it’s inward-facing,” he said. “Our retail vision for phase one hasn’t come to fruition as we’d planned … a lot of our strategy was focused on how we can use that key location, which is the centerpiece of High Street, both 5 and 6, as a catalyst to pull phase one forward and continue momentum to phase three.”
Land said the zoning amendment would “open up the heart of High Street” with three flagship retailers and more pedestrian connectivity, which he thinks the development has been lacking.
“We have 23 commercial businesses, 13 retail tenants, two of which just opened recently: Rosetta Bakery and Varuni Napoli,” Land said. “A really great offering that we think provides a great amenity for the office and residents on property [and] the community at large.”
Before the zoning amendment returns to council, elected officials asked the applicant to work on a traffic/parking plan for restaurant deliveries and pickups, more clarity about on-street parking, and more buildout of the site’s multi-use trail network.
The property is along the Dunwoody-Sandy Springs border, and staff in both cities are working on a paved trail connection to PATH400 along Hammond Drive and Peachtree Dunwoody Road.
