A sizable downtown Chamblee project five years in the making is again going back to the drawing board—but for a good cause, according to developers.

Windsor Stevens Holdings is moving forward with a redesign of The Frazier at Olde Towne Gordon that will more than double its number of apartments in an ITP area that’s seen a surge of multifamily growth in recent years.

The seven-story, Class A development at 3553 Chamblee Dunwoody Road will now feature more than 300 apartments—up from the 144 units in four stories most recently planned, according to developer Rod Mullice of Windsor Stevens.

Notably, 20 percent of the apartments will be reserved for teachers and first-responders, with rents capped at 80 percent of the area median income, as Mullice tells Urbanize Atlanta.

Renderings released in June showing The Frazier at Olde Towne Gordon project as previously designed with 144 units. Windsor Stevens Holdings; designs, Niles Bolton & Associates

Windsor Stevens purchased the .4-acre property next door in 2023 that included a 1980s auto repair building to increase The Frazier’s size. Mullice says his firm recently closed on financing to start a redesign process with Niles Bolton Associates architects that maintains earlier design standards. Plans call for a retail component at ground level along Chamblee Dunwoody Road.

“The footprint is larger so the [apartment] floorplates will be more efficient,” Mullice noted via email. “The facade will be all brick, and we’ll maintain the arches for the retail bays and apartment windows.” 

The project’s revised construction schedule calls for groundbreaking in the fourth quarter of next year and delivery in 2027, according to Mullice.

Initial plans called for The Frazier (formerly “The Gordon”) to be for-sale condos, with construction scheduled to start in March 2020, just before COVID-19 lockdowns interfered. According to a sales push early that year, the initial phase of 24 homes was going to be priced from the $200,000s, with condos ranging from 501 to 1,098 square feet.  

The Frazier project's combined 3535/3553 Chamblee Dunwoody Road location in relation to the rest of downtown and Chamblee's MARTA hub. Google Maps

Earlier project designs. Windsor Stevens Holdings; designs, Niles Bolton & Associates

Should it move forward as planned, The Frazier would join a groundswell of recent multifamily investment around Chamblee’s historic downtown.

Earlier this year, the Lumen Chamblee project debuted across the street, and another nearby multifamily development, City Heights, has more recently started opening. Collectively those developments have brought more than 560 apartments to the district.

Other perks of the project—described as a Transit-Oriented Development, with the Chamblee MARTA station just 1/4 mile away—will include Google Technology in the building, a pool deck, EV chargers, and immediate access to Chamblee’s planned Rail Trail expansion route, per developers.  

Chamblee has been "a beneficiary of explosive population growth within Atlanta, drawing new residents due to its proximity to the primary employment hubs in Buckhead and Midtown,” notes The Frazier marketing materials. “[The project] is embedded in an area with strong income statistics, population growth, and educational attainment, and will support competitive rents and consistent rent growth.”

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