A developer is proposing an unusual mix of hundreds of apartments and millions of square feet of warehouse space in Gwinnett County.
Foxfield, a Boston-based real estate developer, has cleared the first few hurdles to realizing the mixed-use project, which would transform 290 acres along Sugarloaf Parkway near Ga. 316. On Wednesday, the Gwinnett Planning Commission endorsed the project, which consists of 2.3 million square feet of industrial space spread across eight warehouses, 766 apartments, 18 townhomes and about 18,000 square feet of commercial space.
While mixed-use projects are commonplace throughout metro Atlanta, it’s unusual to see residential projects centered around giant warehouses. However, county officials told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution the large site will be split into segments to accommodate each aspect of the project.
“They are developed primarily on individual parcels with individual access,” Matt Dickinson, the assistant director of Gwinnett’s department of planning and development, said in an interview. “It’s not like you’re going to have manufacturing and then apartments surrounding it.”
Office, retail, restaurants and hotels are often in the recipe along with housing in suburban and urban mixed-use developments. But Foxfield’s proposal instead focuses on residential and warehouses, two of most in-demand uses for land in metro Atlanta.
Georgia has experienced a light industrial boom over the past few years, a trend only accelerated by the rapid growth of e-commerce and logistics in the wake of COVID-19. According to CBRE, nearly 45 million square feet of industrial construction was underway in the Atlanta area during the second quarter of 2022, and the vacancy rate of warehouses has dropped below 4%.
Atlanta has also experienced one of the hottest housing markets in the country in recent years. Rent prices increased 17% from July 2021 to July 2022, twice the national average increase, according to RealPage. The apartment occupancy rate in Atlanta is 96%, according to Atlanta real estate services firm Berkadia. In addition, Berkadia estimates about 12,000 new rental apartment units will be delivered this year.
A Foxfield represented declined to comment to the AJC. Shane Lanham, an attorney with Mahaffey, Pickens and Tucker who represents Foxfield, said during the planning commission meeting that the market favors the uses they’re pursuing. The only structures on the project site are former Cisco offices, but the company has been winding down operations in Gwinnett and moving employees to Midtown. Only a tenth of the available office space along Sugarloaf Parkway is currently used.
“(Cisco’s office) was just constructed in a different time for a very different purpose, and it’s not a use that is in high demand in the market right now,” Lanham said, adding that the building will be demolished.
No tenants have been announced for the project, which is called 5030 Sugarloaf. Dickinson said he believed the warehouses would all be speculative or built in hopes of attracting a tenant. Stream buffers and vegetation will be used to separate the residential and industrial parts of the project, site plans show.
Credit: Gwinnett County
Credit: Gwinnett County
Due to the size of the project, the company had to submit a development of regional impact (DRI) application, which is required for gigantic projects that will affect more than just the city or county where the project is located. The Atlanta Regional Commission vets those applications, which includes an analysis on how local infrastructure will be affected.
Dickinson said Foxfield is under contract to purchase all parcels that comprise the project site, which is sandwiched between Gwinnett Technical College and Gwinnett’s STEM school. He said Foxfield initially considered attempting to annex the property into the city of Lawrenceville, but he said the county was able to convince them to stay in unincorporated Gwinnett.
“We’ve very active with speaking with the developer and saying, ‘Stay in Gwinnett!’ Dickinson told the AJC. “Up to this point, they’ve decided they want to stay in unincorporated Gwinnett.”
Many of the properties need to rezoned, and Foxfield is requesting for some buffer reductions and a variance to increase the warehouse buildings’ height by 10 feet. The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners will consider those requests later this month.
Foxfield estimated the project will be completed by 2026 and will have a buildout value of $670 million.
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