Images: Unique East Atlanta project seeks new path forward

It’s becoming a recurring theme: A city-altering project is announced, years of meetings (both public and not) are held, designs are tweaked, community hopes stoked, and then it all crashes into a brick wall of financing difficulty. 

Nonetheless, despite high building costs and an uncertain economy, a unique proposal in East Atlanta that would meld a variety of buildings with truly special woodlands isn’t D.O.A. 

The Skyhaven Quarry project—as it was previously named and is still being called—would encompass a former quarry site and commercial parcels along Moreland Avenue that include a shuttered Family Dollar and a cell tower near Skyhaven Road.

The site is situated about a mile due south of East Atlanta Village, a few blocks east of an Atlanta Beltline section scheduled to open this fall.  

The 9.79-acre property and its redevelopment plans recently came to market via Equitable Realty, tempting a new development team to “seize this rare, high-visibility… opportunity” that counts 700 feet of frontage along Moreland Avenue and Skyhaven Road in “one of Atlanta’s fastest-growing corridors.”

The new asking price is $13.9 million for the property. That breaks down to more than $1.4 million per acre, but not all of the site is developable under current agreements.

According to listings, the property has potential to house more than 110 apartments, 47 townhomes (for sale or rent), plus 9,000 square feet of commercial space and 8,000 square feet of retail.  

Perks of the deal include the approved schematic designs that will quicken the development process, in an area where nearby mixed-use developments are seeing more than 95 percent occupancy in residential sections, per listings. 

The property’s new owner, Embry Development Company, didn’t respond to an inquiry this week. The same firm scooped up a Reynoldstown site near the Atlanta Beltline last year where Toll Brothers had completed demolition and installed infrastructure but never went vertical. 

When we last checked in on the East Atlanta proposal, urban infill developer Clark Property R+D was assembling properties, collecting community input, finalizing designs, and seeking development partners for a total of almost 12 vacant acres along Moreland Avenue. The developer had teamed with Xmetrical design architects, Perez Planning + Design landscape architects, and others with a goal of weaving retail and a variety of housing—including affordable options—with trails, nature conservation, and public space.

Clark Property R+D’s principal Jesse Clark tells Urbanize Atlanta this week his firm collectively held more than a dozen community meetings and secured unanimous rezoning approval in both the City of Atlanta and DeKalb County. The approved plan was uniquely conservation-oriented, in that it called for nearly 5 acres of greenspace to be donated to DeKalb County for a future public park.

“Around that same time, the Federal Reserve began aggressively raising interest rates, which led to a broader slowdown in intown development activity,” Clark wrote via email this week. “We attempted to negotiate a contract extension with the [previous] seller to allow time for market conditions to improve, but we were unable to come to terms, and the property fell out of contract.”

Clark’s firm is no longer involved with the project, but he says the site’s masterplan remains legally binding, and that any changes would require a formal rezoning process and community approval.

“We’re proud of the collaborative work we did with local residents to protect significant greenspace and create a community-driven plan,” Clark said. “We trust that the community will remain engaged and vigilant to ensure that the original vision is upheld.”

With its 40-foot cliffs, the abandoned and overgrown quarry would be at the center of the project, with new trails and Ripplewater Creek wending through. Including that would create a “significant park and trail network” in what Clark considers a “park desert,” where residents have limited access to greenspace, he’s previously said. 

Per earlier plans, Skyhaven Quarry also has potential to be combined with a 14-acre passive greenspace owned by the DeKalb County School District, located immediately east of the quarry, where Skyhaven Elementary School was demolished in 2016. But that section is not included with the current sale. 

Clark Property R+D is the same company spearheading The Lodge project where East Atlanta Village meets Ormewood Park, which is incorporating a former Masonic lodge into its masterplanned mix beside a realigned Moreland Avenue intersection. 

Other signs of developer bullishness on Moreland Avenue in the area, located farther south, have come to fruition. 

The first phase of the mixed-use Halidom project opened with offices just south of Ormewood Park two years ago, with IST Management Services’ new international headquarters signed as a tenant. The project’s Miami-inspired food hall has also opened. 

Just south of there, active intown developers Empire Communities and Trammell Crow Residential are redeveloping a sprawling, 32-acre shopping center on Moreland Avenue. Plans call for eventually building nearly 700 apartments and townhomes, a network of greenspaces, and retail for a project now titled Allora Eastland. 

Head up to the gallery for more Skyhaven Quarry context and visuals. 

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