Developers target tech firms with two Atlantic Station office projects

A rendering of the planned Atlantic Yards office development in Atlantic Station. SPECIAL

A rendering of the planned Atlantic Yards office development in Atlantic Station. SPECIAL

Real estate investment and development giant Hines said Tuesday it has joined forces with an institutional client of Invesco Real Estate to develop two new office projects within Atlantic Station.

The companies said in a news release they will team up to build T3 West Midtown, a previously announced wood-framed office building along 17th Street, as well as Atlantic Yards, a pair of mid-rise office buildings that also will rise along 17th Street.

The pair of developments come as office space within Midtown has gotten scarce from heavy demand from tech firms and more established corporations. Financial technology companies such as Worldpay and Equifax have taken large blocks of space in Midtown, while NCR is building a campus on the doorstep of Technology Square.

Talent from Georgia Tech and the Midtown area’s links to MARTA rail, major interstates and trendy intown neighborhoods have been significant draws since the Great Recession.

Hines, based in Houston, is a well-established developer and property owner in the Atlanta area. In 2015, the company and an investment partner acquired the retail core of Atlantic Station. Among the firm's other trophy assets in metro Atlanta are 1180 Peachtree, 999 Peachtree and Three Ravinia.

Invesco Real Estate is a global real estate investment manager and unit of Atlanta-based financial conglomerate Invesco.

Hines announced plans to build the wood-framed T3 building in 2015, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in December of that year the company was considering a second office project where Atlantic Yards will rise. At the time, Hines officials were mulling a single building there, not two as Atlantic Yards is slated to be.

Rendering of T3 West Midtown in Atlantic Station. SPECIAL

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Construction is expected to start in the first quarter of next year. The projected cost of the project was not included in Tuesday’s announcement.

Both T3 and Atlantic Yards will be geared to creative firms seeking alternatives to high-rise office space. Atlanta has seen a boom in recent years of adaptive reuse projects that have turned old warehouses into office space.

These include Ponce City Market and Armour Yards.

“Midtown’s progressive office customers are anxious for fresh differentiated product that provides unique architecture with a balance of amenities and services connecting them to the 24-hour attributes of Atlanta’s urban core,” Hines Senior Managing Director John Heagy said in the release.

Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture has been retained as design architect for both projects, while DLR Group will be the architect of records for T3 and Wakefield Beasley & Associates will steer Atlantic Yards.

T3 will feature about 200,000 square feet of office space, while Atlantic Yards will feature about 500,000 square feet. Atlantic Station as a whole offers a retail core anchored by Publix, Dillard’s, Target, boutiques and restaurants, and has about 1,000 condos and apartments.

“Both properties will have frontage along 17th Street, the main thoroughfare into the West Midtown submarket best known for boutique lifestyle retail and popular restaurants,” Sally Stocks, Invesco Real Estate senior director and portfolio manager, said in the release.

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