Developer Beefs Up Plan For Huge Development Near Truist Park
A project that would bring a 200-room hotel and a 350-unit apartment complex to Smyrna just wasn't enough.
Three years after getting approval for a mixed-use project between Spring Road and Interstate 285, Rass Associates is looking to build something much larger.
Smyrna submitted a development of regional impact with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs this week seeking approval to build two 20-story apartment towers with between 200 and 250 units each, two commercial buildings totaling 175K SF, and up to a 12-story tower that could be home to a 200K SF office and a 250-room hotel.
The towers would rise over a 1,700-space subterranean parking deck, akin to how Atlantic Station’s parking is designed, said Scott Polikov, Rass' development lead.
“The site, the value potential of the dirt, the 9 acres just really lends itself to a lot more development program in terms of its mix of uses and its intensity relative to what is going on around it,” Polikov told Bisnow Wednesday.
Just across Cobb Parkway from the site is The Battery at Truist Park, the high-density mixed-use development centered around the Atlanta Braves stadium. Its success led Rass to bring on Polikov to rethink the site plan.
“Coming out of Covid, that micromarket there … has a demand gap for retail, for example, that is unbelievable,” he said.
He said he spent the past nine months exploring what made the most sense, which led the firm to its latest proposal.
“We went back to the city a month ago, and they were very receptive,” Polikov said.
The project, called South Spring, could cost up to $500M, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. That includes a new office building, which would be nearly unprecedented in a market with record-high vacancy and developers offloading new buildings that didn't land tenants.
“We’re really, seriously looking at the potential for Class-A office there,” Polikov said. “It’s already a corporate center, and there’s not a lot of land left for corporate office there.”
Still, Rass faces an uphill climb to realize its vision. Smyrna, which annexed the 8.7-acre parcel encompassing 2800 and 2810 Spring Road in 2021, would need the city council to approve building towers above eight stories, the AJC reported.
The other challenges include finding commercial tenants and securing debt and equity in a market that has remained largely frozen since last summer. Rass tapped Avison Young to lease the project and scour the capital markets for financing, Polikov said. The application says the development could open by 2028, but Polikov said between 2029 and 2030 is a more reasonable timeline.
“This is a project that is going to require an institutional — well, not just institutional, but a substantial equity partner,” he said, adding that Rass is open to selling some of the development rights to the project. “The office is not something we’re reliant on. If we find that we can’t get preleased and financed for the office part, we’ll still do a four-star hotel.”
