ALPHARETTA, GA-Developer Stan Thomas, no stranger to mega-sized mixed-use ventures, has cleared the first hurdle on his proposed $250-million Prospect Park here, one of the largest spec-built projects of its kind in metro Atlanta in recent years.
The Alpharetta Planning Commission has approved the 65-acre project on condition that Thomas re-work its size. The city council votes on the venture May 16. The site is at the northwest corner of Old Milton Road and GA 400. Alpharetta is 30 miles north of Downtown Atlanta.
Instead of the initially planned 759,000 sf of retail and restaurant space, 527,000 sf of office, 564 condominium homes and 150 hotel rooms, the project will have 835,350 sf of retail, 400,250 sf of office, 472 condos and a 136-room hotel. The project was first called the Forum at Alpharetta and was planned for a total 1.29 million sf of office and retail. The revised plans call for a total 1.24 million sf of commercial.
Thomas, whose Thomas Enterprises company in Smyrna and Newnan has developed large commercial undertakings throughout the Southeast, also is required to build a portion of the mile-long Westside Parkway as one of the conditions to obtaining a development permit. He has agreed to reduce the height of the buildings to six stories from 10 stories.
Thomas' North Fulton County site was previously considered by two of the largest shopping center developers in the US--Taubman Cos. of Bloomfield, Hills, MI and the Rouse Co. of Columbia, MD, as GlobeSt.com previously reported. Rouse had planned for Dallas-based Neiman-Marcus to anchor a mall off the McFarland Road exit on GA 400 in Forsyth County, north of Fulton County. Taubman had once considered buying the 65 acres for a regional mall, as well.
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