Developer: Popular Buckhead Village dog park, bar to remain—for now

Atlanta’s poshest shopping district won’t be losing its mashup dog park and outdoor social hub in the near future. 

And if Fetch Park Buckhead should be uprooted from its current location, there’s a possibility it won’t be going far. 

That’s the word today from officials with Jamestown, the owners of Buckhead Village and developers of Ponce City Market, who plan to build a 19-story, timber-built tower with nearly 300 apartments where Fetch now operates at 309 Buckhead Ave. NE. (Fans of Fetch, and presumably Buckhead Fidos, expressed concern in communications with Urbanize Atlanta that closing the off-leash dog park and bar would subtract a key draw and gathering place for the Buckhead Village area.) 

A Jamestown spokesperson says no immediate changes are planned for Fetch’s operations on property the developer owns in Buckhead Village, but the situation is fluid.   

“We’ve been in ongoing communication with Fetch regarding the site’s long-term plan and will continue to engage with them directly,” the Jamestown rep wrote via email. “Should [high-rise development] plans progress, we’re committed to working with Fetch and other community partners to explore opportunities for relocation within the greater Buckhead neighborhood.”

No timeline for construction of the mixed-use Buckhead Village tower, which would consume the corner where Fetch has operated since 2022, has been finalized, per the Jamestown official. 

The corner was previously a surface parking lot.  

A Special Administrative Permit application for the project was filed June 18 with the city’s Office of Zoning and Development. The tower proposal came before Buckhead’s SPI-9 Development Review Committee on Wednesday for an initial read. 

“The project remains in the design phase as we work through the standard review process,” noted the Jamestown spokesperson. 

Plans at the 1.13-acre site call for a 19-story building with about 6,000 square feet of retail at the base. According to designs by architects Perkins&Will, 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.  

Seventeen of the floors would be home to 284 apartments, set atop a parking garage with 302 vehicle and 50 bike parking spaces, per Jamestown’s application. 

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. 

Big picture, the project would aim to fill a void of walkable, urban housing options in Buckhead Village “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 summary continues, “the proposed development would strengthen Buckhead Village as one of Atlanta’s most desirable places to live, work, and gather.”

Jamestown officials have extolled the aesthetic and eco-friendlier virtues of timber construction with other recent ventures. The developer owns timberland forests in Georgia for harvesting construction materials and opened the mass-timber-built 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. 

The corner’s current business is one of four Fetch locations operating in metro 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.

Buckhead Village also made news last month by signing Georgia’s first location of upscale gym Equinox, one of several recent or upcoming openings at the shopping district. 

Jamestown—also the developer behind Westside Provisions District in Atlanta and Chelsea Market in Manhattan—bought the hobbling shopping hub in 2019 and focused on creating a commercial district with a focus on smaller brands and innovative restaurant concepts that didn’t shed its luxury cachet. 

Other new additions to Buckhead Village are set to include JONES ROAD, a beauty brand from entrepreneur Bobbi Brown, scheduled to open this year, alongside fashion boutique Jeffrey, which is projected to open in August. 

Recent openings include: Anthropologie’s second-ever standalone Maeve store; Great Many, a non-surgical hair growth studio; London-based luxury womenswear brand ME+EM; New York-based lifestyle brand Hill House Home; French furniture designer Roche Bobois; and New York City-based LoveShackFancy.

...

Follow us on social media: 

Twitter / Facebook/and now: Instagram  

• Buckhead news, discussion (Urbanize Atlanta)