The newest open-air, mixed-use Avenue development would have 356,000 sf of retail and 70,000 sf office, and would be the sixth and second largest Avenue project Cousins has created to date, company officials confirm for GlobeSt.com. The six Avenue developments total 2.6 million sf, an unmatched volume by any other developer for a comparable new brand, retail brokers who follow national industry trends tell GlobeSt.com.

The estimated hard construction cost of all six projects would be at least $200 million, construction industry estimators and planners not associated with the projects tell GlobeSt.com. They base their estimate on a minimum hard construction cost of $80 per sf. "That number could be much higher but it won't be lower," an Atlanta construction company senior estimator with an extensive background in retail development tells GlobeSt.com.

The Atlanta Regional Commission is reviewing Cousins' conceptual plans for the project because it is considered a development of regional impact. Gwinnett County separately is expected to hear the company's request for a rezoning in October.

Cousins had initially proposed 315,832 sf of retail, 32,800 sf of office and 139 townhomes. Faced with neighborhood opposition, however, Cousins eliminated the residential component and increased the retail and office segments of the project.

The estimated $34-million Avenue Webb Gin Corners will be Cousins' fourth Avenue project in metro Atlanta. The others are the Avenue East Cobb, 226,000 sf, estimated hard construction cost of $18 million; the Avenue Peachtree, 182,000 sf at an estimated $14.6 million; and the Avenue West Cobb, 205,000 sf at an estimated $16.4 million.

Outside of Atlanta, Cousins is completing the Avenue Viera at Viera, FL, 60 miles southeast of Downtown Orlando, 415,000 sf at an estimated $33.2 million; the Avenue of the Peninsula in Rolling Hills Estates, Los Angeles, 374,000 sf at an estimated $30 million; and the Avenue Carriage Crossing in the Memphis suburb of Collierville, TN, 800,000 sf at an estimated $63 million. Cousins is co-developing Avenue Carriage Crossing with Jim Wilson & Associates of Montgomery, AL.