What is Buckhead Atlanta?
Buckhead Atlanta is a 1.5 million-square-foot mixed-use neighborhood covering six city blocks and eight acres in the heart of the Buckhead Village. The project includes in its first phase 370 high-end apartments, luxury retail and dining and office space that will include the headquarters of shapewear company Spanx.
What’s open so far?
Bruno Cucinelli, Canali, Etro, a new permanent home for Hermès and Theory are now open. Fado Irish Pub, one of the original tenants, is also open. More shops and restaurants will open over time.
What’s next?
More than two dozen other high-end restaurants and stores, including Dior and Jimmy Choo, will open in the coming months. Planning is underway for a second phase. OliverMcMillan CEO Dene Oliver said the next round, which could start in the next year, will include more residential, offices, retailers and restaurants.
Myajc.com
Go to our premium website, myajc.com/business, for a photo gallery from Thursday’s event.
Myajc.com
Go to our premium website, myajc.com/business, for a photo gallery from Thursday’s event.
Myajc.com
Go to our premium website, myajc.com/business, for a photo gallery from Thursday’s event.
An outsider might have thought Thursday’s grand opening ceremony in Buckhead was a lot of hoopla for five stores and a couple of streets. But those who weathered the brutal recession and years of economic hangover that followed surely know better.
On Thursday, California development firm OliverMcMillan unveiled the first major wave of stores in Buckhead Atlanta, the $1 billion mixed-use neighborhood that replaced the Streets of Buckhead project that foundered during the Great Recession. The 1.5 million-square-foot project is among the largest developments to open in Atlanta in years.
Gone are the lonely cranes and dreary construction site, replaced by twin 22-story towers and low- to mid-rise retail and office buildings covered in stone, steel and glass.
New retailers and restaurants will gradually open in the coming months in the six-block development, which OliverMcMillan officials prefer to call a neighborhood that blends into the surrounding Buckhead Village.
High-end retailers such as Jimmy Choo, Dior, Jonathan Alder and Christian Louboutin have signed leases, and the project is beginning to welcome residents to its 370 luxury high-rise apartments. Plans are already underway for a second phase that will also feature residences, offices, retail and restaurants.
“It’s not a shopping mall,” OliverMcMillan CEO Dene Oliver said. “This is the evolution of a street scene.”
The event had the feel of both a grand opening and a pep rally for a city in an economic recovery. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said Buckhead Atlanta’s opening is another sign of a city that’s regained its verve.
“What today symbolizes, Atlanta, is that we are back,” Reed said. “In the year 2010, we had about $400 million in construction permits. In the year 2013 we had $2.1 billion in new construction permits.”
OliverMcMillan stepped in in late 2010 and eventually redesigned the project after a crushing recession scuttled Atlanta developer Ben Carter’s plans for the Streets of Buckhead.
Reed said that when he was first elected Buckhead residents constantly asked him when the city was going to fill “those two holes,” referring to the development site.
For five and a half years, luxury retailer Hermès, originally part of the Streets of Buckhead concept, occupied a temporary space next to another original tenant, Fadó Irish Pub.
“There were some moments where you thought, ‘Is it really going to happen?’ ” said Robert Chavez, president and CEO of Hermès of Paris.
As long as they had assurances from OliverMcMillan, Chavez said they were willing to stay the course. On Wednesday, Hermès celebrated the opening by inviting 250 locals to enjoy a Provençal Market and Café along Bolling Way.
Arnaud Michel, owner of the nearby Anis Bistro, had front-row seats to the project’s struggles and resurrection. He said in a recent interview the project will bring new business to the neighborhood after the headaches caused by years of construction.
“It will bring new people to Buckhead, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.
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