REAL ESTATE
Dunwoody searches for housing solutions
in Perimeter market
f
Sam Shenbaga of the Atlanta Regional Commission listens to
Geoff Koski of KB Advisory Group discuss housing priorities at
Dunwoody’s Edge City session. (Photo by Bob Pepalis)
By Bob Pepalis
A panel of housing experts said
developers need to build quality projects
with higher densities to supply missing
middle housing for Dunwoody’s
Perimeter, but assistance will be needed
from elected officials.
Edge City 2.0, a seminar series
exploring growth options for Dunwoody’s
Perimeter area, was a joint effort by
the city and the DeKalb Board of the
Perimeter Community Improvement
District to create a blueprint for strategic
growth.
The Nov. 7 panel discussed “Evolving
Suburban Elousing Options.”
Sam Shenbaga of the Atlanta Regional
Commission (ARC) said the housing
issue is every city’s issue. The ARC found
that 95 percent of the people who work
in Buckhead don’t live there for lack of
housing. Ele said the community had a
housing issue, not a traffic issue.
Geoff Koski, President and Owner
at KB Advisory Group, said the average
household has gotten smaller since I960,
with two parents and two children at the
time.
Metro Atlanta can turn to the past
to create middle housing, Koski said.
Building two to four housing units
on one lot as duplexes, triplexes and
quadplexes could be part of the solution.
Putting additional units on the lot would
be a gentle density, he said.
The financial system is set up to build
large apartment buildings and single
family homes, Koski said.
Adding to the problem is that it’s
impossible to pay $1,000 a month for
housing in this region, Koski said. Rising
prices have created more cost-burdened
households spending more than 30 percent
of their income on housing.
Paul Corley, Regional President of
Empire Communities, said since the
recession of 2007 the nation hasn’t caught
up with its housing deficit.
Mortgage rates have increased
significantly, Corley said. Elousing costs
doubled from 2013 to 2023 as household
income failed to keep pace with inflation.
Empire has bought old office buildings,
scraped them off the lots and built homes
of 1,100 to 1,300 square feet at a density
of 28 units per acre. The Empire Buckley
development gives people a place to
live in Buckhead, eliminating their long
commutes to work.
“Density is a good thing if it’s done at
the right place and the right way,” Corley
said.
Ele said to get middle housing that’s
attainable for buyers, developers need
density and should build smaller homes
with simpler architecture. Corley said they
need local governments to ease regulations
and zoning processes as well as reduce
governmental fees. To avoid higher costs,
developers also need faster permitting and
approval timeliness. The developers need
to make creative development of land sites
and redevelopment opportuni ties.
Lew Oliver, principal of Lew Oliver
Inc., said his firm puts a variety of housing
types in its designs. He said housing
developments should prioritize pedestrians
as his firm has done in developments such
as Trilith in Fayette County, where every
other street in the town is a pedestrian
street for people and their pets.
Builders at one of his first development
designs, Hartness near Greenville, SC, saw
seven spec single-family homes of at least
3,000 square feet sit empty for three years
before his team convinced them to build
the micro-housing in his plans. Oliver
said the first 1,000-square-foot home sold
within two days.
Sandy Springs City Councilmember
Jody Reichel asked how a city could spur
redevelopment of an aging apartment
complex that wasn’t the best use of its
property.
Koski suggested prioritizing issues. The
area has older, aging housing stock but
it is 95 percent occupied. He suggested
the lower hanging fruit is strip malls and
empty parking lots. It would be easier to
spur that redevelopment than get 400
people out of a cash flowing apartment
property.
Kolter Urban plans 19-story condo tower in Buckhead
By Dyana Bagby
A Florida-based developer wants to
build a 19-story condominium tower next
to the St. Regis Atlanta hotel in Buckhead.
Kolter Urban has filed plans with the
city to build the tower at 102 West Paces
Ferry Road. The building would include
198 units, ground-floor amenities and a
parking deck with 448 spaces.
Kolter Urban representatives
presented its proposal in November to the
Development Review
Committee for Special
Public Interest District 9
zoning area.
A small shopping
center stands on the
3.3-acre site. Kolter
Urban would demolish
the shopping center to
make room for its new
development.
There would be 12
one-bedroom, 108 two-bedroom and 78
three-bedroom units, according to the
plans.
The architect for the project is Rule Joy
Trammell + Rubio.
Kolter Urban has found success in the
Buckhead luxury condo market. In 2022,
it built the 22-story Graydon Buckhead
tower at 2520 Peachtree Road and is
nearing completion of The Dillon, an
18-story building at 2395 Peachtree Road.
Renderings of the 19-story condominium towner planned to be built at 102 West
Paces Ferry Road in Buckhead. (Kolter Urban/Rule Joy Trammell + Rubio, LLC)
22 | DECEMBER 2024
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