Pope & Land Eyeing 600K SF Office Campus In Alpharetta
One of Atlanta's more prolific local developers is eyeing another office project in Alpharetta. But this time, there will be no mix of uses.
Pope & Land Enterprises filed an application with regional planners for what it is dubbing Equinox Corporate Campus, a three-building, 600K SF office complex with a multistory parking deck off McGinnis Ferry Road and Georgia Highway 400.
The land has been marketed by Colliers International Atlanta, and Senior Vice President Rob Jordan confirmed the 26-acre site at 1275 McGinnis Ferry Road is under contract. He declined to comment further.
Pope & Land officials did not return calls seeking comment by press time. It is unknown if Pope & Land is building the project with a specific occupant in mind.
The site is surrounded by a number of major corporate entities, including Agilysys, GE, LexisNexis and Merrill Lynch, according to Colliers International.
But Pope & Land is heading in an unusual direction by going pure office in Alpharetta when many developers are building mixed-use projects, inspired by the success of Avalon.
Across the street from Avalon, Greenstone Properties is in the process of rezoning 20 acres, once slated for a pure office development, into a mixed-use destination that could include 450K SF of office, apartments, retail, restaurants and a potential 10K SF Variety Playhouse theater.
“Where office projects need to be in the future is in mixed-use,” Greenstone partner Chris Scott told Bisnow in January.
Pope & Land is no stranger to office projects in Metro Atlanta, having developed a number of icons on the metro skyline, including the 3630 Peachtree office tower (in a joint venture with Duke Realty) in Buckhead, Atlantic Center Plaza in Midtown (affectionately known as Mini Me) and elements of The Battery at SunTrust Park, most notably the 270K SF Comcast office building.
In Alpharetta, the firm also is pushing a massive mixed-use project called Northwinds Summit, a site at the corner of Haynes Bridge Road and GA 400 that is 5 miles south of its Equinox Corporate Campus proposal. Northwinds Summit could include 1.2M SF of office, a 140-room hotel, 30K SF of retail and restaurants, apartments and a smattering of condominiums, Bisnow previously reported.
While North Fulton County — the submarket where Alpharetta is situated — has had a slow start to the year, activity in the area is promising for landlords to have a strong year, according to a recent Colliers report.
Developers are seeing success. Cousins Properties, in its JV with Hines Interests, is courting interest in 10000 Avalon, the second planned office building at the Avalon mixed-use project, CEO Larry Gellerstedt said on a recent company earnings call.
