29-Story Residential Tower to Rise in Midtown Atlanta

Modera Midtown will be a new 29-story high-rise apartment complex located in Atlanta’s art and technology district, the city's second-largest business center.

The mixed-use community at 90 Peachtree Place is being developed by Dallas-based Mill Creek Residential.

The development will feature 435 luxury apartment homes spanning 29 floors in Midtown, a neighborhood perched between the financial district of Buckhead to the north and the commercial district of Downtown to the south.

Bounded by 8th Street, Williams Street and Peachtree Place, the apartment tower will be in close proximity to Technology Square, which soon will be the new home of NCR Corp.

The tech giant recently agreed to a 15-year lease to occupy a new $200-million, 485,000-square-feet high-rise tower, which will be completed in 2018. The move will create as many as 4,000 new jobs across the street from the new community.

Once complete, Modera Midtown will consist of 488,000 square feet devoted to residences and 12,300 square feet for commercial space. Included is retail space on the street-facing sides of the ground floor.

The development is a one-minute walk from the MARTA Midtown Station and offers unblocked views of Downtown, Midtown, and the Georgia Tech campus, which is less than a block away.

Upon completion, the building will consist of 1- and 2-bedroom apartments and a limited number of studio and 3-bedroom units.

The complex will contain a variety of upscale amenities, including an 1/8 mile running track elevated nearly 100 feet above street level, expansive courtyards, two resort-inspired pools, sky lounge, yoga studio, fitness center, business center and rooftop terraces.

The above-ground parking structures will include multiple car-charging stations for electric cars.

Outdoor amenities will be found in three separate locations – the rooftop, the seventh floor and the 26th floor.

A dog park and grooming station, in addition to the sky lounge, are part of the rooftop layout. Multiple outdoor bars and grilling stations, movie lawn, and a pool will be available on the seventh floor.

A second rooftop pool with a hydraulic lap lane is nested on the 26th floor.

This project follows very closely on the heels of Mill Creek's Atlanta debut of Modera Morningside, a 300-unit apartment project at 1845 Piedmont Ave just off Cheshire Bridge Road in Morningside.

The Modera Midtown tower will be a welcome addition to the Atlanta skyline.

$4B American Dream Miami will be Largest Mall in the U.S.

The American Dream is alive and well in the minds of mega-developer Triple Five Group. The family-owned conglomerate, is preparing to build the nation’s largest shopping mall and entertainment complex on more than 200 acres of former cow pasture by Interstate 75 and Florida’s Turnpike, near Hialeah in northwestern Miami-Dade County. 

The massive $4 billion project is being backed by the developer of the Mall of America in Minnesota, presently the largest entertainment and retail complex in the United States.

Some of the components include a 16-story indoor ski slope, a 20-slide water park, a submarine ride in a man-made salt water lake with an artificial reef, a climate-controlled theme park, a 14-screen 3-D movie theater, a performing arts center, a 2,000-room hotel and much, much more.

The mall would also have 3.5 million square feet of retail space. In contrast, Aventura Mall, the third-largest mall in the U.S. and Florida’s biggest, has 2.7 million square feet of retail.

When completed, American Dream Miami encompass 6.2 million square feet, making it the largest shopping mall and entertainment complex in the United States.

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The project is expected to create some 25,000 construction jobs, 9,500 permanent jobs, and will provide a historic boost to the county’s economy.

The mega-mall would add $1.36 billion in taxable value and generate $1.6 billion in annual sales of goods, services and leases. That would generate $48.5 million in revenue for local taxing authorities, such as the county and the school board, and $93.6 million in sales tax for the state.

Triple Five Group hopes to break ground in early 2017 and complete the project in late 2019.

The Canadian-based development company is controlled by the billionaire Ghermezian family, which has ventures in real estate development, solar energy, oil drilling, vehicle manufacturing and mining.

This will not be the family’s first super-mall. In 1981, Triple Five built the 5.3 million-square-foot West Edmonton Mall in Alberta. Now the largest mall in North America, West Edmonton Mall has a giant water park, carnival rides, a casino and other forms of amusement.

In 1992 the Ghermezians had co–developed the 4.2 million-square-foot Mall of America in Minnesota, with an aquarium and the Nickelodeon Universe theme park among its features.

The Mall of America is the largest shopping mall in the United States; Triple Five recently broke ground on a $325 million project to expand it further.

Triple Five is also constructing American Dream Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey, a 4.8-million-square-foot retail and entertainment facility near MetLife Stadium.

Using $2.5 billion in private bond money and $1 billion from the state of New Jersey, Triple Five will be building hundreds of stores, dozens of restaurants, a 12-story-tall ski slope, a 200-foot drop ride, a giant aquarium and a water park.

39-Story Residential Tower Planned for Midtown Atlanta

The Related Group is preparing to construct a new 39-story mixed-use residential tower at the corner of West Peachtree Street and 14th Street in Midtown Atlanta.

The building, which will include 390 luxury apartments and 6,500 square feet of retail space, will be the tallest residential tower project built in Atlanta since 2009.

The upscale property will feature a 72,000-square-foot multi-level Whole Foods Market, a pool terrace with club room amenities and a fire pit terrace on the 39th floor.

Situated at the gateway to Atlanta’s Arts District, Piedmont Park and the Midtown business district, the new skyscraper will be anchored by Atlanta’s largest Whole Foods Market -- which will include a pub, microbrewery and cooking school -- in addition to a variety of neighborhood restaurants.

The developer has selected Balfour Beatty Construction to build its new skyscraper. The project marks The Related Group’s entry into the Atlanta market.

Designed by architecture firm Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart, the project is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2018.

Atlanta designer Michael Habachy will complete the interiors, including "a grand rooftop club room, state-of-the-art demonstration kitchen, luxurious South Beach-themed 10th floor pool and more,” according to the developer.

Atlanta-based architecture firm Phillips Partnership, which specializes in hospitality, multi-family, retail and mixed-use projects, will design the Whole Foods Market.

The Related Group is also planning another residential tower with 386 units and two stories of commercial space, at Peachtree and Stratford roads in Buckhead, next to the new MARTA pedestrian bridge and train station.

Currently, Related has more than 50 projects in development, according to a statement from the company.
 

Hard Rock to Build 800-Room Guitar-Shaped Hotel & Casino

The oversized guitar has long been a beacon for the Hard Rock Casino chain, but the Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood is looking to take to take that iconic symbol to new heights.

Plans for a colossal guitar-shaped hotel tower stretching 34 stories and containing 800 rooms were unveiled this week during a news conference with Gov. Rick Scott.

The tower is the feature attraction in the Seminole Tribe's $1.8 billion expansion plans. The structure looks every bit a guitar in scale but doesn't have a neck.

"We could have easily just built some rectangular building ... but the tribe is once again trying to create something that is iconic, that creates international tourism coming to Florida," said Seminole Gaming CEO Jim Allen. "We truly believe that that design alone will create additional tourism."

The expansion plans, contingent on the Legislature's approval of a deal brokered between the tribe and the governor, include the hotel tower and restaurants. The expansion is expected to bring nearly 20,000 jobs to Florida, the Seminoles said.

The hotel will increase the complex's rooms to 1,273 and add five new restaurants, a buffet and nightclub at its complex on U.S. 441 north of Sterling Road.

The tribe is committed to rivaling Las Vegas and other casino destinations around the world. "We truly think this will rival not only anything in Florida, but Atlantis and anything in the world," Allen said, pointing to an artist rendering on an easel.

The expansion includes spending almost $100 million on swimming pool space, Allen said. The plan adds a second pool and new pool bar. "Florida is about pools and the beaches and the ocean."

He said that while the aim is to create a destination that will continue to attract crowds many years from now, the expansion doesn't stretch far beyond the casino's current footprint.

While Allen focused on the Hollywood expansion, he also discussed plans for the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa, which will have new poker rooms, stores and restaurants.

The Tampa hotel and casino will also add a new tower with 500 hotel rooms and a live entertainment venue with up to 2,000 seats.

For the more affluent gamblers, there will be a helipad.

Scott asked numerous questions during the presentation. His verdict at the end: "Impressive."

Several business owners who work with the Seminole Tribe stood at a microphone and discussed how their businesses had been affected by the casinos.

A flower shop owner who started working with the Seminoles in 2010, said her business has grown from five employees to more than 100 full-and part-time employees. She said she buys and installs over 35,000 flowers annually at the casino.

From the onset, the emphasis was jobs. "It would be devastating" if the proposed deal doesn't pass.
Scott rehashed the numbers: 3,800 jobs lost if the gambling deal isn't signed and 4,800 direct and indirect jobs created, outside of construction jobs, if it passes.

The gambling deal would bring $3 billion to the state over the next seven years. In return, the Seminoles would get the exclusive right to have roulette, craps and other table games in its seven casinos.

The deal also caps the number of slots and tables casinos can have, but critics point out that the caps are so large they are essentially meaningless, including a 6,000-slot limit at any one casino.

The agreement also states that the Legislature can approve new casinos in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, a limited amount of blackjack tables in parimutuels and even allowing the race tracks to stop racing and simply operate as casinos.