Developers Discover Douglasville

ATLANTA-With most roads, utilities and water hookups already in place, three developers plan a mix of office, retail, multifamily and single-family product in Douglasville, GA, a suburb of about 20,000 residents five miles west of Downtown.

Grubb & Ellis of Northbrook, IL plans to market an estimated 40,000-sf class A office building and an undetermined amount of retail on a 70-acre tract owned by Robert Barsk at Blairs Bridge Road and Bob Arnold Boulevard.

LandSouth of Macon, GA plans to break ground in September on Preston Landing, a 240-unit apartment venture on 30 acres near Sweetwater Creek, an area with little existing multifamily product.

Ryland Group Inc. of Columbia, MD plans 255 single-family homes and possibly some townhomes on 72 acres south of LandSouth’s tract. Home prices will average $185,000.

The developers see a new niche surfacing in a corridor developing between Downtown and Arbor Place Mall at Interstate 20 and GA 5.

Second-quarter research by Atlanta-based Richard Bowers & Co. shows only 310,663 sf of office built in the Interstate 20 West/Greenbriar submarket with almost all of it occupied. Occupancy is 93.07% with 21,517 sf available at an average asking rent of $12.13 per sf.

Second-quarter absorption was 14,584 sf with year-to-date absorption of 20,864.