ATLANTA (From news reports) -- An icon of Atlanta's skyline is set to become one of the city's largest conversion projects, transforming underused office space into shops, restaurants and some of the highest altitude apartments in the Southeast.
Georgia-Pacific said it will redevelop its namesake 51-story downtown tower into a mixed-use destination. The company intends to revamp the uppermost floors of Georgia-Pacific Center into about 400 apartments, retrofit the lower floors into retail, restaurant and entertainment space and preserve a little less than half the building as high-end offices. The proposal also includes a large central plaza and the potential for future development.
Changing a building's use, also known as adaptive reuse, is a challenging and expensive undertaking. But it's a technique that has gained new attention as urban districts grapple with a glut of unwanted office space spurred by the rise of hybrid work in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the city's sixth-tallest building, Georgia-Pacific Center's planned conversion highlights how weak office demand is incentivizing building owners to reconsider how to make the most of their high-rises.
"The office landscape has changed," Christian Fischer, president and CEO of Georgia-Pacific, said in a news release. "And we recognize that the adaptive reuse of our site and office tower can create greater long-term value."
Clad in pink granite, the 697-foot-fall Georgia-Pacific Center at 133 Peachtree St. is one of Atlanta's most recognizable structures. The building with the stair stepped facade was completed in 1982 and includes 1.3 million square feet of office space.
While a number of highrise conversions have been announced or completed in metro Atlanta, none are of the scale proposed by Georgia-Pacific.
The company declined to disclose the project's anticipated budget or other financing information. Georgia-Pacific project lead Suzanne Maynard said the development team "will be exploring all incentive programs that may make sense for this project."
Downtown Atlanta has been trying to redefine itself beyond just an office community. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said Georgia-Pacific's plans match those revitalization efforts.
"This transformative redevelopment is a significant step in moving Atlanta forward, turning an important block in the heart of the city into a vibrant and welcoming destination that breathes new life into downtown," he said in the release.
A lively Peachtree Street
Georgia-Pacific Center is a fixture of one of downtown's premier office corridors.
It's located on Peachtree Street near the city's hotel district and adjacent to Peachtree Center and Woodruff Park.
Clark Dean, executive managing director with real estate services firm Transwestern, who is consulting for Georgia-Pacific on its project, said a redeveloped tower could extend energy from bustling Midtown into downtown.
"A thoughtful mixeduse project of this scale on Peachtree (Street) promises to launch a long-awaited renaissance for our city's most important main street business district," Dean said in the release.
The project will include roughly 125,000 square feet of space to be leased by retail, restaurant and entertainment tenants. The proposed central plaza is an amenity designed to encourage gatherings.
The project also includes more than 2,100 parking spaces, and is located next to the Peachtree Center MARTA station and an Atlanta Streetcar stop.
Beyond just an office
Georgia-Pacific is a private company owned by Koch Industries that has employed thousands of Atlantans at its tower over the decades, but its workspace needs have dwindled with time.
For five financial quarters in a row, the amount of available office space in metro Atlanta has broken records. The region ended June with roughly a third of all office square footage empty or otherwise available for rent, according to real estate services firm CBRE.
Georgia-Pacific Center's conversion will preserve about 600,000 square feet of office space, which will be anchored by Georgia-Pacific and Koch's Atlanta operations. Currently, more than 3,000 Georgia-Pacific employees are based in Atlanta. The amount of office space both companies will use and how much will be available for other companies to lease haven't been finalized.
Georgia-Pacific assembled an in-house development team to lead the effort. In addition to Transwestern, it's also partnering with architect Rule Joy Trammell + Rubio, retail broker Healy Weatherholtz, civil engineering firm Kimley-Horn, interior design firm Studio Saint and preconstruction contractor Brasfield & Gorrie.
"Compared to most office buildings, the Georgia-Pacific tower has numerous elements that make a conversion like this much more seamless," said Maynard, the project lead. She said the building's four elevator banks, on-site MARTA station and connected parking help alleviate some adaptive reuse challenges.
A $5 billion redevelopment project of the Gulch, known as Centennial Yards, is underway, with several towers under construction. A development team was selected early this year to convert the empty 2 Peachtree office tower into housing, with a focus on affordable rents. And the owners of CNN Center, who recently rebranded the landmark building as "The Center," aim to redevelop the property into an bustling office and retail complex.
Georgia-Pacific expects to break ground in summer 2025 and complete the conversion by the fall of 2027.
Future of downtown: This story is part of an occasional series by the AJC that looks at the future of Atlanta's downtown. Several highprofile developments are poised to bring billions of dollars into the city's core while it continues to grapple with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and a challenging real estate financing market. Atlanta's downtown will also garner international attention when soccer's World Cup comes to town in 2026, providing a deadline for the city and downtown stakeholders to make promised improvements.
