The vision became clearer today for a large-scale office park transformation in one of Atlanta’s more coveted suburbs.

Atlanta-based Toro Development Company reveled today the first renderings and redevelopment team for a 43-acre mixed-use project in the pipeline for Johns Creek, located at the prominent intersection of Johns Creek Parkway and McGinnis Ferry Road.

TDC officials are calling the venture “Medley” as a nod to its planned “variety of flavors, experiences, and people,” officials said.  

Founded by former North American Properties executive Mark Toro, TDC’s experience includes Colony Square’s revival, Atlantic Station’s family-friendly turnaround, and Avalon’s ground-up creation from abandoned fields in Alpharetta. (The Avalon lineage is especially apparent in Medley’s first renderings.)

The 43-acre Medley will be the first new section of Johns Creek's Town Center concept. Toro Development Company; designs, Nelson Worldwide

Medley is the first project to apply for Johns Creek’s recently passed TC-X mixed-use ordinance, which is meant to pave the way for the Fulton County city’s broader, 192-acre Town Center Vision and Plan. 

As designed by Nelson Worldwide architects, Medley will aim to be an “eatertainment” destination that’s “transformative for Johns Creek residents [by creating] the best parts of urban living in a suburban setting,” said TDC partner John Kelley in a prepared statement.

Specifically, Medley calls for 200,000 square feet of space for retail, restaurants, and entertainment concepts; 900 residential units (a mix of townhomes and luxury multifamily homes); and 110,000 square feet of office space, all connected with the larger Town Center. 

Toro, the development company’s principal and chief vision officer, said Medley will play host to more than 100 community events annually and focus on tenants that create vibrancy.  

Toro Development Company; designs, Nelson Worldwide

Since breaking away from NAP, Toro has said his company spent the past year studying development sites around the Southeast and found “all the right pieces” in Johns Creek. That's where two mid-rise office buildings (and acres of surface parking) were left behind when State Farm Insurance Co. uprooted to a new high-rise headquarters complex in Dunwoody.  

TDC is buying 43 acres of the 54-acre property from a fund sponsored by U.S. Realty Advisors, the New York-based owner of the site since 2013 that’s been looking for a suitor for years. Toro previously promised the Johns Creek project “isn’t going to be Avalon 2.0.”

Overview of the Medley site's two mid-rise office buildings formerly occupied by State Farm Insurance Co. The building at bottom is being incorporated into the new project. Google Maps

As a next step, TDC officials plan to meet with the Johns Creek community and city officials in coming weeks to “work collaboratively and curate the right experience” for the project. A construction timeline hasn’t been specified.

The redevelopment team also includes landscape architect Site Solutions, Kimley-Horn engineers, Stream for office leasing, and Franklin Street to fill retail spaces.

Closer to Atlanta’s core, TDC also made headlines recently for announcing a 186-unit apartment venture called “The Reid.” That project will take prime-time acreage, located a block from the Atlanta BeltLine’s Eastside Trail, where neighborhood favorite Reid’s Body Shop operated for nearly 70 years.

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