Alpharetta will decide on the proposed redevelopment of North Point Mall during a Monday meeting.
The massive $550 million redevelopment would transform 83 acres of the 100-acre site into greenspace, townhomes, apartments, office space and new restaurants and shops.
Developer Trademark Property Company appeared before the Planning Commission in July. Since then Alpharetta officials have been critical of the project and pressed the builder to lower the number of apartments.
City Council will officially consider the project for the first time during its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday. Council members will vote on rezoning and a master plan amendment.
Trademark is planning to redevelop the mall property for owner New York Life.
The developer will spend $174 million on demolishing 470,000 square feet of mall space, renovating the remaining mall space and creating a road system, retail village and public spaces before the start of construction of the rental housing, CEO Terry Montesi said.
“Because of all that expense, ... there has to be some value (generating for New York Life) and the multifamily is one of the value creators,” Montesi said.
Trademark has made changes to its design to satisfy Alpharetta concerns, Montesi said. The residential section of the project would be built with 875 apartment units and 103 for-sale homes.
“Below this, the risk is very, very high that this deal dies and the owner would just have to start over and try to figure out whether to try to sell it or (something else) ...” Montesi said.
The homes would be priced about $700,000-$950,000 and apartments would average about $2,500 per month, he added.
In earlier designs, there were 1,200 apartments and 36 townhomes.
Montesi said Trademark has agreed to Alpharetta’s conditions to build the apartments in two phases instead of three. Project construction is estimated to start in 2024, and if the second phase of the apartments are not built by 2027, the developer would convert them to for sale units, Montesi said.
North Point Mall was built in 1993 and has become outdated similar to others around the U.S.
Trademark studied 19 mall redevelopment projects across the country and found the average number of rental housing units is 1,841 units and an average of 63 acres.
“And then the average number of units per acre was 29.1,” Montesi said, regarding the density of projects. “The average number that we’re requesting is 10.5 per acre.”
Trademark held two community meetings with residents to discuss the proposed project and conducted an online survey. There were 710 responses to the survey.
A total of 2% of respondents didn’t want the project to move forward, Montesi said, and 14% said the number of proposed apartments should be a deal-breaker.
About the Author