Full Proposal is available here in this link.
This development proposal will be going in front of the Dunwoody Planning Commission on Tuesday February 13th and then in a month or two the proposal most likely will be making it to the full City Council for review and decision.
The site is located at 245 Perimeter Center Parkway, Dunwoody, GA 30346, on the west side of Perimeter Center Parkway and the south side of Hammond Road. The lot is the last remaining piece of the Park Center development which abuts the Fulton County line to the west and vacant land owned by the City to the south. The applicant seeks permission to rezone the subject property from PDc to PDc; this rezoning does not affect the zoning classification of the property, but rather is an amendment of the zoning conditions of case RZ 15-72, as it relates to the future development of the subject parcel.
The 2015 Overall Development Plan, which sets the limits and zoning regulations for the development, entitled the applicant to the following:
• 1.8 million square feet of office space
• 90,000 square feet of retail/restaurant space
• 7,000 structured parking spaces
• Maximum height of 35 stories above the plaza level
• The subject property was not addressed and was left as greenspace
Based on the proposal above, a DRI (development of regional impact study) was completed along with the 2015 rezoning and was approved. As a part of that process, the applicant conducted a detailed Traffic Impact Study which included Trip Generation and Access Analysis. The recommendations from the 2015 DRI were fulfilled with the development of Park Center buildings 2 & 3. In 2023, the applicant has submitted its plans to the Atlanta Regional Commission, which compared the anticipated traffic impacts with the 2015 DRI plans. The now-proposed development of the subject property would not create worse impacts so, per the Community Development Director and the Atlanta Regional Commission, another DRI was not necessary.
Since 2015, two office buildings, Park Center buildings 2 & 3, have been constructed and completed in 2021 and 2022. Following these developments, the property is currently entitled to the remaining 729,613 SF of office, 33,586 SF of restaurant/retail, and 2,833 structured parking spaces. The applicant proposes to construct a new building, Building 4, on the subject property and requests to construct up to 300,000 SF of office space, 300 multi-family residential units, 175 hotel rooms, 22,000 square feet of restaurant/retail, and 1,565 square feet of structured parking spaces, with a maximum building height of 37 stories. The request for multi-family residential and a hotel are not permitted under the 2015 Overall Development Plan and are new uses requested.
The current zoning of this property is Planned Development District (PD). PD districts are not subject to regulations dictated by the zoning ordinance; instead, the uses and site and building regulations are dictated by the Overall Development Plan (ODP). The existing ODP from 2015, which covers the entirety of Park Center, does not anticipate residential multi-family dwelling units. Due to this designation, development of this property with the proposed mix of uses at this site requires a zoning map amendment.
The applicant proposes to amend the ODP for the subject property to allow Building 4 to have the following proportion of uses:
• Up to 300,000 SF of office
• Up to 175 hotel rooms
• Up to 22,000 SF of restaurant/retail/other permitted uses
• Up to 300 multi-family residential units
Additional residential development within such close proximity to the Dunwoody MARTA station, Campus 244, High Street, and the mall will serve to further activate this area of Perimeter Center. New residential units will complement the surrounding uses, by allowing nearby employees an opportunity to live within walking distance to their job; additional residential units will also further support the new retail, restaurant, and entertainment nearby. A number of the retail spaces at Park Center were intended to cater to office employees. Due to remote work and overall office space vacancy, the number of customers is much lower than initially anticipated. Adding hotel and apartment units to the mix will diversify the customer base with people working remotely or visiting the area.
The proposed use mix reduces both peak AM and PM hour traffic and thus reduces the development’s impact on congestion. Car dependency is further reduced by the increasing walkability of the Perimeter Center and the proximity to the Dunwoody MARTA station, which would provide future residents with convenient commute alternatives.
The current economic conditions, which began during the global COVID-19 pandemic, have significantly reduced the need for new office development and as demonstrated in the Edge City 2.0 study, the need for residential development is very strong, especially near MARTA. Overall, development of Building 4 under the current entitlements, as an office building, is not feasible and the proposed mix of uses would be a benefit to the Park Center campus and the surrounding area.
