September 14, 2007

Atlanta Business Chronicle
Allison Shirreff

Known primarily as a business, convention and retail hub, over the next few decades the Cumberland/Galleria area is expected to add more than 28,000 jobs to the roughly 110,000 that exist.

But Cumberland is gaining traction not only as a place to work, but as a place to live and play.

According to the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Envision6 Forecasts, the area will gain about 16,800 residents, who will reside in about 10,900 new households, from 2000 to 2030. About 105,000 people live there today.

Grove Street Partners LLC is set to break ground on a multi-use project next to the performing arts center in late 2010 or early 2011. When completed, the

project will include 50 condos, a 200-room hotel and 35,000 square feet of retail space, as well as a 15-story, 400,000-square-foot office building, according to partner Chip Groome.

Seven Oaks Company LLC, best known as an office developer, believes one of the main ingredients for long-term success is creating a true mixed-use development.

“Cumberland is really evolving into more of a 24-hour community,” said Randy Holmes, principal at Seven Oaks. “Because of that, there’s a strong attraction to the residential side.”

The company’s Riverwood development, scheduled to break ground next year, will include about 500 condos. The company plans to sell that land, as well as the land devoted to a hotel, to developers with expertise in those areas.Riverwood will target “the younger buyer, not super-luxury,” added Holmes.

The super-luxury buyer is what residential developments such as the 35-story Park Vinings, developed by Park Signature Properties, with units starting at $1 million; and Taz Anderson Realty Co.’s $76 million, 55-unit high-rise condominium, the Aberdeen in Vinings Village, with units starting around $900,000 and topping $2 million, are seeking.

The Aberdeen, which broke ground in May, has more than $21 million worth of pre-sales.

“This area is really evolving into the live-work-play type of environment it needs to be,” said Geoff Anderson, president of Taz Anderson Realty. “The Cobb Energy Centre is really going to be a huge boon to the area.”

Many of the developments in the area are condo-centric, but are aimed at different audiences. Wood Partners’ 17-story Horizon at Wildwood opened in March. The 274 one- and two-bedroom units start in the $180,000s and top $500,000. The 156-unit One Vinings Mountain, a $90 million condominium community developed by Trammell Crow Residential and Halter Properties LLC, includes units priced well over $1 million, but prices start in the $300,000s.

Monte Hewett Homes LLC’s 60-acre mixed-use West Village includes more than 1,100 residential units, including for-lease condos — offered at different price points in several communities within West Village, including Town Park and its 115 three-story townhomes.

Gateway Park will offer more than 70 single-family homes, with the first ones coming on line this December; and The Flats at Riverwalk includes 264 one-, two- and three-bedroom condos developed by Ashton Woods Homes. Units start at $165,000 and top $200,000.

Monte Hewett Homes recently broke ground on Vinings Main, a mixed-use community in Vinings Village.

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