The planned conversion of a Gwinnett County corporate campus into a hub of housing, retail, and industrial uses has recently taken significant steps toward beginning construction, marking what project leaders call a win for the county and State of Georgia.  

Two years ago, Foxfield LLC and global real estate manager AEW Capital Management bought nearly 300 acres just south of where Ga. Highway 316 meets Sugarloaf Parkway, west of downtown Lawrenceville and two miles east of Interstate 85 in central Gwinnett.

The mixed-use project has been dubbed Sugarloaf Logistics Hub.

The site today is home to a six-building corporate office setting that spans 740,000 square feet. But Foxfield and AEW envision a master-planned campus with more than 2.2 million square feet, blending up to 800 residences with seven new buildings (ranging from 120,000 to more than 600,000 square feet) for industrial, warehouse, and logistics uses.

Overview of mixed-use plans at the Sugarloaf Logistics Hub. Courtesy of Foxfield LLC, AEW Capital Management; designs, Pieper O'Brien Herr Architects

Project officials announced Monday that food distributor Souto Foods—a Gwinnett-based subsidiary of Alex Lee, specializing in products from Latin America and the Caribbean—has signed a lease for a roughly 200,000-square-foot building at the Sugarloaf campus.

Souto Foods plans to invest $28 million in the site and hire 70 new employees in the county, rooting a significant portion of its Southeastern base at the facility.

The Sugarloaf Logistics Hub team has also sold more than 13 acres of the site to Atlanta-based housing developer Westplan Investors.

According to Foxfield and AEW reps, the land deal will set the stage for about 330 multifamily units to be built near one edge of the campus along Sugarloaf Parkway and Cruse Road. The thinking goes that Sugarloaf Logistics Hub employees will also be attracted to renting on site.

“Surrounded by abundant employers, amenities, and demand drivers, this well-located opportunity aligns perfectly with our strategy of developing high-quality multifamily residences across Sunbelt growth markets,” Kenny Budd, Westplan regional development partner, said in a prepared statement.

According to project leaders, Sugarloaf Logistics Hub is being designed to embrace the site’s natural features, including a lake, creeks, streams, tributaries, and walking paths.

Sugarloaf Logistics Hub's location where Ga. Highway 316 meets Sugarloaf Parkway, in relation to Interstate 85 and downtown Lawrenceville. Google Maps

On the residential front, plans call for 700 to 800 units to eventually be built, blending single-story flats apartments and townhomes. Elsewhere, five retail pad sites will be situated along Sugarloaf Parkway, an important traffic corridor around the central section of Georgia’s second-largest county.

Project heads say the location, situated close to I-85, is well-suited for light manufacturing, last-mile logistics, and food uses that can take advantage Gwinnett’s growing population and labor base.

Construction of Sugarloaf Logistics Hub is scheduled to start in the second quarter of 2025. 

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