Portman Eying Mixed-Use Redevelopment Of Alpharetta Office Complex
The development firm responsible for some of the icons of Atlanta's skyline is now looking to make its mark on the city's suburbs.
Portman Holdings, founded by the late legendary architect John Portman, is looking to redevelop the Brookside office park in Alpharetta into a mixed-use development with new retail, apartments and townhouses.
The development firm filed a Development of Regional Impact application with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs this week, outlining its plans to tear down one of the two five-story office buildings on the site and replace it with 350 multifamily units, 90 townhomes and 60K SF of retail.
The project abuts Brookside Park and Alpharetta’s Big Creek Greenway, a 9-mile pedestrian trail that winds through the affluent northern Atlanta suburban city. It would incorporate new green spaces and a pedestrian trail, according to renderings shared with Bisnow.
“At a high level, this is a redevelopment of an early 2000s suburban office development into a mixed use development,” Portman Senior Vice President of Development Mike Green told Bisnow in an email. “We hope this becomes not only a great place for surrounding residents to visit, but also a destination along the Big Creek Greenway and Brookside Park.”
Bridge Investment Group bought Brookside I and II, near the intersection of Old Milton Parkway and Georgia 400, in 2021 for $41M. The Salt Lake City-based real estate investor still owns the 20-acre site. It is unclear if Portman would purchase the property or partner with Bridge on the project.
Officials with Bridge didn't respond to a request for comment Tuesday. The company financed its purchase with a $36M adjustable-rate loan from Texas Capital Bank that was set to mature in May, according to the real estate database Reonomy. In August, Bridge secured a $21M, one-year loan from MidFirst Bank, according to Reonomy.
When Bridge bought the property three years ago, it was planning to lease up the 266K SF of office space in the buildings with tenants, citing that the properties underwent a recent renovation under previous owner Equus Capital Partners.
“Brookside is surrounded by a bevy of premier shopping, dining and entertainment destinations, helping to fuel favorable conditions for rent growth and long-term asset value in the years ahead as more employers gravitate to North Fulton and other high-growth suburbs,” Bridge CEO Jeff Shaw said in a press release at the time.
Brookside II is the stronger-tenanted of the two buildings, with a 73% occupancy rate, according to CoStar information obtained by Bisnow. Brookside I, which has 151K SF, is only 35% occupied, according to CoStar. Green confirmed that Portman plans to knock down one of the buildings to clear space for the development.
Townhouses would be built on the southern portion of the site, which today is covered with surface parking lots. The office building on the northern portion of the site would be replaced by the apartment building, built around a courtyard with pickleball courts, according to the rendering. Plans call for eight retail buildings in addition to the existing Touchmark National Bank branch on the site's northeast corner.
Brookside would be Portman’s first suburban Atlanta mixed-use project since developing Northpark Town Center in Central Perimeter in the 1980s.
The developer, which built Peachtree Center, the Westin Peachtree Plaza and Hyatt Regency Atlanta in Downtown Atlanta, is now contributing to the growing trend of tearing down suburban offices to make way for other uses.
Alliance Residential tore down an aged mid-rise office building off Peachtree Parkway in Peachtree Corners for its Broadstone Peachtree Corners apartment project that opened earlier this year. And a DR Horton subsidiary, Forestar Group, purchased a 102K SF four-story office building in Technology Park/Atlanta campus in Peachtree Corners with plans to raze it to make way for 75 upscale townhouses.
