A development team including former Atlanta Brave Mark Teixeira unveiled designs on Wednesday for the first phase of a 70-acre mixed-use project near the future park at the Bellwood Quarry.
The project, to be called Quarry Yards, will rise near the Bankhead MARTA station and Westside Park, which is expected to be the city's largest when it opens next year. The developer said a $400 million first phase of Quarry Yards, which will cover 27 acres, will include 850 residences, a 300-room hotel, retail, restaurants and more than a half-million square feet of high-end office space.
Property speculation west of the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Georgia Tech has boomed since the end of the Great Recession. But the development wave has raised concerns about displacement from nearby neighborhoods where residents earn well below the metro median income.
In an interview, Teixeira said project will create jobs and revitalize the local community. The former Tech star said the partners are committed to the city’s 15 percent requirement for affordable rental housing for residents at 80 percent of the area median income.
Teixeira and his partners have been acquiring land in the area for a number of years and are founders of Emerald Corridor Foundation, a group behind plans to clean up Proctor Creek and raise money with partners, including the city, for the Proctor Creek Greenway.
The Greenway will one day tie the Beltline to the Silver Comet Trail.
The partners also have a 7-acre site where they envision a separate development for 200 affordable units for seniors.
Teixeira said his group holds about 300 acres total on the Westside and other parts of the property could be used, in cooperation with the city, to meet affordable housing goals.
Teixeira said in an interview his development partners said financing for the pair of office buildings is in place, though contingent on landing an anchor tenant for the Class A buildings. Teixeira and partners Jimmy Barry and Joel Bowman of Urban Creek Partners and apartment giant Pollack Shores Real Estate Group will develop the residential through a joint venture agreement.
“We floated this project a few months ago, to test the market, and we got the overwhelming sense that if you built it they will come,” Teixeira said.
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