Developers hope to break ground by the start of summer on Gateway Village at Town Center, launching a $75 million project meant to be complementary to — not competitive with — St. Johns Town Center.
City Council enacted Ordinance 2017-40 for the Gate Parkway Mixed-Use Village Planned Unit Development on Tuesday, paving the way for the 18.5-acre project.
The land, long the subject of speculation about potential uses, is at the southwest intersection of Gate Parkway and Deerwood Park Boulevard, next to the main campus for Deutsche Bank. It is south of Butler Boulevard from Town Center.
Developer Chris Morgan said Thursday the mixed-use village is designed as a neighborhood service.
“It’s not just a cookie-cutter development with shop space. It’s meant to be something the community can be proud of and can be a part of,” said Morgan, CEO of Cantrell & Morgan.
Sidlyd Investments LLC, managed by Morgan and Cantrell & Morgan President Jim Loftin, is listed as the developer and owner of the project. England, Thims & Miller Inc. is the planning and civil engineer.
Members of the Skinner family own the land, which Sidlyd would buy before breaking ground.
Gateway Village is designed to comprise up to 300 apartments, 25,000 square feet of office and medical space, 50,000 square feet of commercial space and 110 hotel rooms. There also will be a gas station and convenience store.
Morgan said the apartment property would be sold to another developer, but his group will retain ownership of the rest of the land and build-to-suit and ground-lease it.
He said he was speaking with a hotel group, but no deal has been completed.
Morgan said community meetings helped shape the final product.
“We ended up with a mixed-use project that will serve the residences in the immediate trade area,” he said.
He describes the apartments as more of an urban-type footprint with a higher density on a small parcel, in this case 300 units on about 5 acres. He said the high-end project would be like those in Buckhead and Midtown in Atlanta.
Morgan said if ground is broken at the beginning of June, the apartments could be completed 16-18 months later. He said he did not have an agreement yet to publicly identify the developer.
He said Gateway Village will include “small shop boutique offering and programming” for up to two buildings, which would include an upper-end restaurant with outdoor seating and some breakfast-and-lunch concepts.
Morgan said more financial, medical, professional and retail offices also will serve the neighborhood, calling it a live-work-play environment.
As part of the PUD agreement, his group is willing to invest $1.4 million in traffic improvements at Gate Parkway and Deerwood Park Boulevard.
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