One facet of the Brookhaven City Centre project has officially topped out this week en route to marking several firsts—and becoming the latest example of a MARTA station parking lot being redeveloped for more active uses.

After breaking ground last fall, the $78-million City Hall building has taken shape adjacent to MARTA’s Brookhaven-Oglethorpe University Station as the first step in creating a place-defining city center.

According to general contractor McCarthy + Barnsley, A Joint Venture, the project marks the first municipal building in Georgia to be built with mass timber. It will also function as the first purpose-built City Hall for Brookhaven since it was incorporated as a sovereign city in 2012, the 11th in DeKalb County.

The site in question, where Peachtree Road meets North Druid Hills Road, was formerly a 1.2-acre MARTA parking lot. Brookhaven signed a $13.6-million, lease-purchase agreement with MARTA for the land that will be good for 50 years.

Construction progress on the MARTA-linked 4047 Peachtree Road project. Courtesy of McCarthy + Barnsley

Lighting scheme for the Brookhaven City Centre project at night, as seen along Peachtree Road. Sizemore Group

According to McCarthy + Barnsley officials, the five-story, mass-timber building will house Brookhaven’s administrative offices and city council chambers—but roughly 60 percent of it will be open to the general public.

Topped with a rooftop garden, distinctive dome, and terraces, the Sizemore Group-designed building will feature three upper levels for city employees and one level for a below-grade, 70-space parking garage.

Other facets will see a three-story atrium under a skylight, a sport multipurpose room, a catering kitchen, and a variety of other spaces for public use. Elsewhere on site, a communal greenspace is designed to host public events.

It’s all scheduled to open next summer.

Each of the building's above-ground levels will feature exposed mass timber, a natural material known for durability and a construction process that produces less carbon.

Timber-built interiors of the City Centre project today. Courtesy of McCarthy + Barnsley

How a (sparsely attended) wedding could function on the terrace level. Sizemore Group

Brookhaven’s 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. It will serve a populace of about 60,000 people.

Selina Schulten, Barnsley Construction Group’s president, called the Brookhaven project an “excellent representation of mass-timber’s inherent flexibility and versatility” in a topping-out announcement today.  

McCarthy + Barnsley is a joint venture formed in 2020 between McCarthy Building Companies and Barnsley Construction Group. Brookhaven City Centre marks the partnership’s sixth project together.

Sizemore Group

Courtesy of McCarthy + Barnsley

City Centre isn’t the only sizable Brookhaven development moving forward within a few blocks of MARTA.

Charlotte-based developer Terwilliger Pappas has entered the home stretch of construction 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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