Images: In Buckhead Village, timber mixed-use tower enters pipeline

The developer behind Ponce City Market is aiming to add a little oomph—and nearly 300 more living options—to Buckhead Village’s skyline.  

Jamestown is proposing a high-rise, mixed-use multifamily building built of mass timber on property it owns at 309 Buckhead Ave. NE, according to a Special Administrative Permit application filed June 18 with the city’s Office of Zoning and Development. 

The corner site today is home to Fetch Park Buckhead, an off-leash dog park, social hub, and bar. It’s one of four Fetch locations operating in Atlanta, with another in Philadelphia. When Fetch opened in Buckhead Village in January 2022, Jamestown officials predicted the site would eventually be redeveloped, but that Fetch would be in place for at least five years.

Plans at the 1.13-acre site now call for a 19-story building with about 6,000 square feet of retail at the base. 

The spaces for shops and retail would be situated near the southeast corner of Buckhead Avenue and North Fulton Drive (nearest to Buckhead Village today), next to a new public plaza, according to plans by architects Perkins&Will. 

Seventeen of the floors would be home to 284 apartments, set atop a parking garage with 302 vehicle and 50 bike parking spaces. (The apartment breakdown calls for 48 studios, 151 one-bedroom, 72 two-bedroom, and 13 three-bedroom options, with no mention of affordable or workforce housing included, according to filings.)  

A wood louver system would be used to mask parking levels, plans indicate 

Jamestown’s plans are set to come before Buckhead’s SPI-9 Development Review Committee on Wednesday for an initial read. 

“As demand continues to grow for centrally located, walkable urban living, the Buckhead Village District lacks additional housing options that match its character and vitality,” reads a project summary submitted to the city. “By combining sustainable construction with residences tailored to the area’s needs, the proposed development would strengthen Buckhead Village as one of Atlanta’s most desirable places to live, work, and gather.”

Employing timber construction with the Buckhead Village project would make sense for Jamestown. The developer owns timberland forests in Georgia for harvesting construction materials and opened the mass-timber-made 619 Ponce building beside Ponce City Market two years ago. 

The corner site is less than a block from where another timber-built proposal near Buckhead Village—the 20-story Intro Atlanta, as planned by Chicago-based Harbor Bay Ventures—has failed to take off. That East Paces Ferry building would top out at 225 feet tall, which is the maximum height allowed for the Buckhead Village district, according to plans approved three years ago. 

Jamestown is asking for approval of two variances with the Buckhead Village project, including the reduction of a “walk zone” on a 105-foot section of Buckhead Avenue from 10 to six feet.  

“This variation is necessary,” reads the SAP application, “to accommodate an expanded outdoor dining area adjacent to the retail frontage on Buckhead Avenue and will support an active, pedestrian-oriented streetscape.” 

Next door, Buckhead Village made headlines earlier this month by signing Georgia’s first location of upscale gym Equinox, one of several recent or upcoming openings at the shopping district. 

...

Follow us on social media: 

Twitter / Facebook/and now: Instagram  

• Buckhead news, discussion (Urbanize Atlanta)