Project by Star Metals District developer calls for 1,600 residences, retail spaces, offices
APRIL 22, 2024, 1:08PMJOSH GREEN URBANIZE ATL
Two years after paying $31 million for the site, an active intown developer has taken another step toward starting a mixed-use project that could bring sweeping changes to Bankhead and the BeltLine’s Westside Trail.
The Allen Morris Company submitted Development of Regional Impact paperwork to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs on Sunday that outlines the scope and other details of what could take shape at 1060 Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway, a 15.5-acre site that’s home to warehouses and open industrial land today.
Allen Morris—the Florida-based developer behind the Star Metals District on Howell Mill Road and other intown projects—is aiming to build a new village where the parkway meets the BeltLine. According to the DRI filing, the project would entail 1,600 multifamily units, 575,000 square feet of office space, and 125,000 square feet of retail across the linear site, which fronts the Westside Trail for the equivalent of several blocks.
Developers file DRI submissions with the state when projects could be large enough to impact infrastructure on a regional scale. Allen Morris also submitted the 1060 Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway proposal for mixed-use rezoning with the City of Atlanta last month.
The overall project completion date is listed as 2031 on the DRI filing. But some public-accessible aspects of it could be ready sooner.
Spencer Morris, the development firm’s president, tells Urbanize Atlanta the project’s retail phase is expected to start construction in the third quarter of 2025. (BeltLine officials say construction on the Westside Trail’s adjacent Segment 4—the last unfinished section of that trail—is slated to be finished in summer 2025.)
Morris said project renderings, branding, and other details will be released in coming months.
We’re speculating here, but a project listed as being under active land refinancing with Patterson Real Estate Advisory Group could lend a preview of the Bankhead project’s aesthetics. The lone available rending appears to include the address “1060 DLH” and the name “Ironside” on what’s also a 15.5-acre site on the city’s Westside.
Allen Morris’ plans call for direct access to the BeltLine next door and a new parking garage for visitors and employees arriving by car.
Much of the property is vacant today, with the exception of a nonprofit facility and community organization called Village Skatepark ATL. According to the skatepark’s website, it’s conducting a 2024 fundraiser to help secure a new building and permanent location.
This site is just east of the Maddox Park greenspace, MARTA’s Bankhead station, and Microsoft’s ballyhooed but postponed 90-acre Westside campus development.
Allen Morris will be the site’s lead developer, but the former owner, Tenth Street Ventures, will stay involved as a partner, officials announced in May 2022 when the land sold. The redevelopment was described at the time as becoming a neighborhood destination that activates the BeltLine and serves the community.
Elsewhere in Atlanta, Allen Morris is currently building a major new residential facet to its $500-million Star Metals District and recently opened a multifamily project called Bryn House in North Druid Hills.