Brookhaven’s quest to visibly stake its claim as an official ITP city is expected to take a significant step forward soon.
Brookhaven became DeKalb County’s 11th city following a referendum process in the summer of 2012, and sometime this fall, city leadership plans to finally move forward with construction of a $78 million City Hall building adjacent to MARTA’s Brookhaven-Oglethorpe University Station—the first step in creating a place-defining city center.
The site in question, where Peachtree Road meets North Druid Hills Road, was formerly a 1.2-acre MARTA parking lot. Acreage adjacent to the station had been the source of development talks that encountered government and community pushback before sputtering out years ago, but redevelopment appears certain this time.
According to an Aug. 31 project update issued by the city, Brookhaven’s contractor has employed a “well-known expediter” to assist with project permitting at the DeKalb County level, which the city deems a “critical path [toward] approval to allow work to start.”
Permitting paperwork was submitted Aug. 17, and it’s expected to take around four weeks for the county to respond.
A development team that includes Sizemore Group architects and Fides Development has also submitted paperwork to the Federal Aviation Administration for permits to erect a crane. Final approval is expected this month, per the city’s late-August update. Logistics for a groundbreaking were still being worked out at the time.
The project's context at 4047 Peachtree Road in the ITP city. Google Maps
How the $78-million project will be sited at one of Brookhaven's busiest intersections. City of Brookhaven/Sizemore/Fides Development
As the Atlanta Business Chronicle relays, Brookhaven has signed a $13.6 million lease-purchase agreement with MARTA for the land in question that will be good for 50 years. Brookhaven’s overarching goal is to make the city complex and transit station more of a nucleus, with bike lanes, multi-use trails, and new sidewalks spreading out from it and linking to other projects such as the Peachtree Creek Greenway.
Project officials told the newspaper City Hall is expected to be complete by the middle of 2025, with more than 60 percent of the building—including a rooftop terrace—open to the public.
Plans for Brookhaven City Hall's Peachtree Road facade, with the transit station behind the structure. Sizemore Group
City Hall isn’t the only sizable Brookhaven development moving forward within a few blocks of MARTA.
Charlotte-based developer Terwilliger Pappas hopes to finish construction next year on a project called Solis Dresden Village that includes 176 apartments, seven townhomes, and a row of new retail in the 1300 block of Dresden Drive. That development team has noted their site is about a five-minute walk from the train station.
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