The latest proposed redevelopment of Atlanta church property could add oomph to the northern blocks of Buckhead’s skyline, while marking a rare bet on a new intown office high-rise. 

Charlotte-based Crescent Communities has put together plans for a two-tower, mixed-use project that could see 54 stories of combined vertical construction rise where Peachtree and Wieuca roads meet, across the street to the north from Phipps Plaza shopping mall. 

The 2 and ½ acres in the 3600 block of Peachtree Road are part of The Church at Wieuca (formerly Wieuca Road Baptist Church) land holdings where other large-scale redevelopment plans have failed to materialize in recent years. Crescent Communities is under contract with the church to buy the acreage in question now, Bisnow Atlanta reports. 

The 40-story Ritz-Carlton Residences, a condo building, has stood on the same block since 2009.

According to a Special Administrative Permit application filed with the City of Atlanta Office of Zoning and Development in December, the Buckhead office tower would rise a few feet taller (340 feet) but count fewer stories (22 total) than its apartment sibling. 

Proposed Wieuca Road elevation for the 22-story office building, with its 32-story multifamily counterpart at left. Pickard Chilton/Crescent Communities, via Livable Buckhead

The corner church property in question today (right) where Peachtree and Wieuca roads meet in Buckhead. Google Maps

The office high-rise would also count 6,500 square feet of commercial space, with 930 parking spaces in a new deck. It would be accessible from both Peachtree and Wieuca roads, per the SAP filing. 

The 435,000-square-foot apartment tower, meanwhile, would stand 32 stories (334 feet), topped with a “sky deck,” according to Crescent Communities’ filings.  

Plans call for roughly 300 apartments (no studios among them), along with 400 parking spaces and the minimum 50 bicycle parking spaces required. 

Development team members including HSR Development Services are requesting variances for the project to widen spaces for amenities (eight feet wide, as proposed) and walking (a 13-foot-wide zone) along the property’s full section of Wieuca Road.

Architecture firm Pickard Chilton is designing the offices, while Niles Bolton Associates has drawn up apartment plans, filings indicate. 

Niles Bolton Associates/Crescent Communities, via Livable Buckhead

Location of the 3626 Peachtree Road NE property in relation to Phipps Plaza and other landmarks. Google Maps

Crescent Communities counts projects across metro Atlanta, including an upscale Midtown mid-rise that delivered in 2022. The firm’s current projects include the Novel Blandtown mixed-use venture and a section of North DeKalb Mall’s redevelopment. 

In Buckhead, the corner church property in question is no stranger to large-scale redevelopment ideas. 

Five years ago, Ritz-Carlton lodging appeared to be making its return to Buckhead with a hybrid hotel-condo tower that would have used an existing garage for parking on site, but that development never moved forward. Ditto for an Empire Communities proposal in 2023 that would have infused sections of the property with a mix of townhomes, apartments, offices, and retail.

Find a closer look at Peachtree Road plans as they stand today in the gallery above. 

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