Perimeter Business
A monthly section focusing on biuinejj in the Reporter News papers communities
High-end apartments lure new tenants
By Joe Earle
When Trisha Ring was an undergraduate at the Universi
ty of Kansas two decades ago, she took a part-time job leas
ing apartments to students and professors. That turned into
a career that's taken her to jobs across the country.
Now she works in Dunwoody in the heart of the Perime
ter business district, as project manager for JRK Residential,
which recently purchased the 709-unit Wellesley at the Pe
rimeter luxury apartment and townhome complex.
Wellesley, located at 350 Perimeter Center North, is un
dergoing a $15 million renovation, she said, that will add
granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, a new theater
room, two new fitness centers, a meditation room and a cob
blestone street lined by gas streetlights. Once renovation is
done, she said, the complex will be renamed The London.
"It's all about the 'wow factor,"' she said. "It's going to be
unlike anything in the Perimeter."
Luxury apartments have to work for attention if they
want to stand out these days in the Perimeter, which experts
rate as metro Atlanta's third most desirable area for apart
ments, after Buckhead and Midtown.
"The Perimeter market has evolved into one of the pre
mier live/work markets in the entire southeastern United
States," said George Reid, who produces The Reid Report,
a study of the metro area's apartment market and who lives
in Sandy Springs.
Only 359 new units were built in the Perimeter area last
year, Reid said. But work began in January 2013 on two new
complexes on Hammond Drive that are to contain a total
of more than 690 units. Construction of other luxury apart
ments is under way in Brookhaven, and more units are ex
pected in Sandy Springs by the end of the year.
Hundreds of high-end apartments already have been
CONTINUED ON PAGE 14
Also...
Page 12: Perimeter Profile
Charlie Augello
wanted to finally
settle down with his
family. So in 1986
he left the corporate
world behind and
opened the E. 48th
Street Market in
Dunwoody.
Page 13: New hotel opening in 2014
The first new full-service hotel to be built in
the Perimeter submarket in 25 years is coming
to Brookhaven.
Phil Mosier
Michael Blair, managing director for development for Pollack Shores Real Estate Group, stands
at a shopping center the company will replace with a luxury apartment complex. The complex
is one of two planned at Hammond Drive and Peachtree Dunwoody Road in Sandy Springs.
