Permitting paperwork filed this week with the city is one indication that downtown projects expected to add hundreds of new living options steps from Five Points and Underground Atlanta have hardly been shelved, officials tell Urbanize Atlanta.

The planned conversion of former office skyscraper 2 Peachtree Street into a mix of affordable housing and commercial space, and the ground-up construction of smaller, sibling building 1 Peachtree across the street, made headlines between 2022 and early 2024. 

The affordable housing initiatives have largely gone quiet, at least in public, since then.

But on Monday, representatives with the development team picked last year by Invest Atlanta, Two Peachtree Partners, filed for 1 Peachtree building permits with the Department of City Planning, signifying a step toward groundbreaking. 

Development officials have called the 1 Peachtree infill project—proposed as 65 units of senior housing, situated where Peachtree and Wall streets meet, immediately north of Underground Atlanta—the first phase of a “transformative” injection of new housing. 

Richard White, senior vice president with The Integral Group and part of the Two Peachtree Partners group, said the 1 Peachtree project is “progressing steadily” through planning, design, and permitting phases, though no outlook on groundbreaking was available. 

An early rendering show what facets of the 1 Peachtree property directly across the street from the 2 Peachtree complex (currently a plaza bordering a large parking garage) could become. City of Atlanta

Looking north up Peachtree Street, the 2 Peachtree complex is shown at left, with 1 Peachtree at right. City of Atlanta

Plans are also advancing—albeit behind the scenes—at the 2 Peachtree high-rise complex across the street, said White. 

2 Peachtree includes a 44-story, 890,000-square-foot landmark tower dating to the 1960s, which Invest Atlanta purchased from the State of Georgia last year for $41.5 million to create adaptive-reuse housing. A seven-story building occupied by Georgia State University next door has been added to the project mix, representing another 126,000 square feet of redevelopment opportunity. The tower conversion is expected to add at least 200 new housing units. 

White said his team and consultants are in active coordination with the National Park Service regarding 2 Peachtree to ensure the building’s redevelopment respects its historic character and architecture. A federal funding component through the 2025 Congressional budget has been secured to help move the project forward, White said. 

“It is not a schedule that we control,” said White via email, regarding his team’s work with National Park Service. “Things are not quiet because things have somehow stalled. It’s quiet because we’re doing the work.”

Rendering illustrating the 1 Peachtree office tower and neighboring building remade for residential uses, with housing and retail added to a standalone parking garage across the street (bottom left). City of Atlanta

The 2 Peachtree tower opened in 1966 as the Southeast’s tallest building, and it remained the tallest in Atlanta until John Portman’s cylindrical Westin Peachtree Plaza surpassed it a decade later. It had served as offices for banking and state government since its inception. Next door, 14 Marietta is significantly older, dating to 1940 as the original headquarters of First National Bank, prior to the tower’s development. It hasn’t been renovated since 2 Peachtree was completed nearly 60 years ago.

According to renderings, the slim 1 Peachtree building would rise between an existing parking garage (masking one façade from public view) and Peachtree Street. Earlier filings with the city indicate the building will see a mix of one-bedroom and studio apartments. White previously said the rentals will be reserved for residents age 62 and older earning at max 80 percent of the Area Median Income.  

Two Peachtree Partners, the development partnership, consists of Underground Atlanta owners Lalani Ventures, Integral, The Atlantic Companies, and office leasing firm T. Dallas Smith and Company. 

In September, Lalani Ventures unveiled plans for a 30-story residential tower that would bring more than 400 apartments to Underground’s doorstep. Shaneel Lalani, Lalani Ventures CEO, told Urbanize earlier this year that lining up financing for the roughly $160-million proposal has been difficult. 

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