Trashy, idle Buckhead Village development site rankles neighbors

In the spring of 2023, New York-based developer Tidal Real Estate Partners brought plans before Buckhead’s design arbiters for a posh new apartment tower studded with public art, with an impressive motor lobby and small village of vibrant retail at the base.

Instead, according to concerned neighbors, all that’s been created to date is a wasteland of idleness and potential safety hazards.

Tidal’s approved plans call for a 21-story luxury high-rise at 321 Pharr Road, which would top out at 225 feet, the maximum height allowed in Buckhead Village. Its 406 apartments would continue a surge of new residential options—both under construction and proposed—from developers banking on walkability to luxury shopping and a multitude of eateries as selling points.

A Buckhead Development Review Committee gave Tidal’s plan their blessing a year and ½ ago. Numerous businesses shuttered in subsequent months. 

Encompassing nearly a full block, the site is home to an array of smaller buildings where School of Rock, Mediterranean restaurant Lily White, a cleaners, a salon, and other businesses operated. It’s located a block from Jamestown’s Buckhead Village district, between the Alexan Buckhead apartments and landmark restaurant Atlanta Fish Market. Prime Atlanta real estate, in other words. 

“It seems like a huge shame that so many local businesses were displaced for this project, only for the developers to turn around and leave the property in horrible shape,” nearby resident Adam Crisp wrote to Urbanize Atlanta via email. “[The site] is now derelict, attracting squatters, and generally making the neighborhood unattractive.”

As a recent visit proved, some of the site’s boarded-up buildings are dotted with graffiti and collapsing awnings, while the overgrown property was speckled with garbage, uprooted political campaign signs, and a least one toppled trash receptacle. It’s an urban ghost town—and a stark contrast to manicured Buckhead Village streets where Dior, Hermès, and Billy Reid do business a short walk away. 

The block is part of Buckhead’s Garden Hills, a leafy, quiet residential neighborhood that extends south toward Midtown. According to Crisp, it’s been boarded-up, locked, and idle since about January.

Multiple inquiries to Tidal officials seeking development updates and phone interviews have not been returned. City of Atlanta permitting records show no activity for the site since December.

According to Crisp, measures to keep people out of the vacant buildings, such as plywood, have been compromised, and he fears the structures could become fire hazards in colder months ahead.

“As the season changes, I’m sure the buildings will become more attractive to people who need a warm place to sleep,” said Crisp. “This is a huge piece of land, and the lack of maintenance will have a big impact on the area's appearance.”

Crisp has reached out with concerns to District 7 Atlanta City Council member Howard Shook’s office. Shook’s office directed inquiries to Atlanta Police Department’s Code Enforcement Section. An official with that department said an Atlanta Municipal Court hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 18 to address housing code violations at the 321 Pharr Road site.

According to plans Tidal brought to Buckhead officials last year, rents at the Pharr Road project would range from about $2,800 to north of $5,000 monthly, with no small studio apartments in the mix. 

Renderings indicate the 18,540 square feet of planned retail would be separated into four slots along Pharr Road and North Fulton Drive around the corner—activating two streets. The 17,000 square feet of public space would nearly double what the district requires with a development of such scale, project leaders have said.  

Tidal reps said last year they hoped to deliver the building in 2025, but having not broken ground, that won’t be possible now.

Crisp worries that any fines the city levies for the property’s condition would be considered part of a large out-of-state developer’s business plan and a minor inconvenience as the site accrues value. In the short term, he’d like to see the property fenced, and the empty structures razed.

“The developer is charging for parking, so they’re deriving some income from the land that could be used for maintenance,” Crisp wrote. “A friend unknowingly parked there recently and incurred a $75 ticket.”

Find more context and images for 321 Pharr Road in the gallery above. 

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