The next phase of redevelopment at West End’s Lee + White is taking shape in a way developers say will diversify what’s offered there and who’s offering it.

Investment partners Ackerman & Co. and MDH Partners have signed a lease for the second location of celebrated chef Todd Richards’ Lake & Oak Neighborhood BBQ and have also filled a 23,000-square-foot space with a local technology startup. Both businesses are minority-owned, according to project reps.

Next door to spaces where the tech company and restaurant will operate, construction is expected to begin by the end of May on a food hall concept set to replace another former warehouse. MDH Partners and Ackerman have recently picked a contractor for that facet of Lee + White, reps tell Urbanize Atlanta.

Early designs for what's called building 1020 where Lake & Oak will be located, at left, and the former food hall on existing parking lots. Plans have been modified to turn this food hall space into an open green area for guests.Renderings courtesy of Ackerman & Co.; designs by Smith Dalia Architects

Overall, Lee + White’s second phase is expected to cost $85 million and rework spaces to capitalize on the district’s half-mile of frontage on the Atlanta BeltLine’s Westside Trail.

Plans call for “a variety of public spaces overlooking the trail” and a new path that would thread those social areas together, according to an announcement Monday.

The tech startup, which hasn’t been named, is expected to move into readapted loft offices in Lee + White’s building 1050 by the third quarter of 2021 and operate lab and production facilities. The space will feature 18-foot ceilings and a terrace overlooking the Westside Trail.

Construction on building 1050, where the tech startup will be located, as seen in March. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Meanwhile, the full-service barbecue restaurant—named Lake & Oak for its original East Lake location near Oakhurst—will take 3,900 square feet in building 1020 next door, with a projected opening in the fourth quarter of this year. Another roomy patio with BeltLine views is in the works there.

At the opposite end of the 14-bulding warehouse row, one of Lee + White’s original tenants, Monday Night Brewery, has also recently expanded by about 10,000 square feet to allow for more brewing and production. Monday Night’s footprint is now roughly 50,000 square feet, and outdoor spaces have recently been upgraded with a post-pandemic world of weddings and other gatherings in mind.

As for the food hall adaptive-reuse, Ackerman reps have said the goal is to open it next year, with around 20,000 square feet.

Ackerman teamed with MDH Partners in 2019 to buy Lee + White for $40.3 million. After lean months in early and mid-2020, the district returned to pre-pandemic patronage levels by November, projects leaders have previously said. 

The roster across the existing 426,000 square feet of spaces includes three breweries (Monday Night Garage, Best End, Wild Heaven), a distillery (ASW), plus Boxcar restaurant, Hop City beer store, Honeysuckle Gelato, Doux South Pickles, and the Westside’s first rock-climbing gym, The Overlook.

CORRECTION: This article has been modified to reflect that the freestanding food hall and offices in renderings above will instead become a public greenspace for now, per developers. 

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