By Amanda Casciaro
Marietta Daily Journal Staff Writer
SMYRNA - The $450 million West Village at Interstate 285 and Atlanta Road combines 1,100 craftsman-style homes and a soon-to-be bustling retail center, making it the largest mixed-use development Cobb has seen.
The 63-acre project, spearheaded by Atlanta-based Pacific Group, integrates 292 for-lease condominiums and townhouses, 120 for-sale flats, 115 townhouses, 73 detached single-family homes, three mid-rise condominium buildings and 190,000 square feet of retail space.
The network of homes, trendy boutiques and restaurants share a style and location that already has gained support from Cobb and the surrounding communities of Oakdale, Vinings and Smyrna.
"Up until now, what we generally had (with mixed-uses) was an area of office with housing placed next to it," Cobb Commission Chairman Sam Olens said. "This was really the first significant project where the mix of uses is occurring at the onset of development. More importantly, the density associated with the development is in the right place, next to the interstate where the infrastructure can handle it."
Modeled after another development in Huntersville, N.C., West Village is the product of a partnership among Woody Snell of The Pacific Group; Nick Telesca, president of Atlanta-based Branch Properties; Chris Cassidy and the Highlands Group; Monte Hewett Homes of Atlanta and Atlanta-based Ashton Woods Homes.
The team formed in 2004 with a goal to bring a home-ownership and rental-based project to Cobb that is attractive for young professionals and married couples from all walks of life.
"The whole theme of West Village is there is a price point here for everyone," Snell said. "What we wanted to accomplish is a place where people could walk from their house to the village for pizza, shopping or whatever."
The project, which initially garnered skeptics in surrounding subdivisions because of its size and overall density, began in 2004 when Snell started negotiating to buy 64 homes off Oakdale Road for redevelopment.
With a neighborhood plagued by drugs and dilapidated homes, the task of assembling properties wasn't easy.
"It was the hardest way in the world to get 63 acres," Snell said. "Fifteen to 20 percent of the people were very difficult. We had to go in and sit at their kitchen tables and talk them into selling."
The tract was ripe for something new. Police busted a crack house in the neighborhood, and some even suspected methamphetamine was being produced in one of the homes, Commissioner Joe Lee Thompson said.
"It was a really run down area and had been for years. To make the improvement from what it was to where it is today is what I see as the big advantage," Thompson said. "This is truly one of the success stories in Cobb County as far as redevelopment goes. This project is on the way to being very successful, and it's on the way to set a standard in the area for the next 30 to 40 years."
Monte Hewett already has completed many of the cottage-style homes, complete with spacious luxury bathrooms, optional outdoor fireplaces and two-car garages, in the rear of West Village near Oakdale Road.
More are planned on 20 adjacent acres, along with another village shopping center anchored by a major, upscale grocery chain, Snell said.
Construction now is happening on about 43 acres of the 63-acre project.
"Back here, we don't see 285 and we don't hear 285, yet we're two minutes from the interstate," said Lisa Simmons, a real estate agent for Monte Hewett Homes, which converted its model home - priced in the mid-$500,00s to $600,000s - to an on-site sales center. "On average, we have about 20 to 25 people who come in every week and they're very, very impressed."
More than 35 people moved into completed condominiums and townhouses last weekend, Snell said, and even more have signed sale agreements.
"By the end of the summer and this fall, this place will be vibrant," he said. "Right now we're in the process of transforming from a construction site to a village."
McCray's West Village Tavern, slated for completion in the next 60 days, will join Starbucks Coffee, Blue Moon Pizza, Five Guys Burgers, Yuraku Japanese Restaurant, Je Belle's formal boutique, Nora's Place fine arts-and-crafts store and a host of other businesses that were bustling with construction workers on Friday.
All of the retail is topped with for-lease condominiums and surrounded by townhouses that shield three parking decks serving residents and visitors from view.
According to Chris Cassidy, a partner with the Highlands Group and Branch Properties, rental homes were placed above retail to shield homeowners with a higher investment in the property from noise and odors that may come from restaurants.
"We've already mitigated for some of the noise so what you have is a six-inch concrete slab between the retail and residential," Cassidy said. "We've also segregated trash facilities and enclosed them because aromas, whether it's from cooking or trash, is an issue.
"We've gone to great pains to build into the product predetermined shafts so we take exhaust from restaurants directly to the roof to minimize impact on residents."
The idea was to put rental properties, most likely occupied by younger professionals accustomed to an urban environment, next to retail.
"When all is said and done, I like to think it's raised the bar for other developments that come in," said Tony Waybright, president of the West Vinings Civic Association and one of many community leaders who have had discussions with Snell since before zoning was approved in 2004. "It gives a focus to the area, a central feature, and it's something everybody can grow with."
Waybright, an attorney who has lived near Oakdale Road since 1995, was part of a large group of homeowners who initially opposed the development because of its high overall density and expansive residential components.
A Super Wal-Mart proposed by Atlanta-based Jacoby Developers, which built Atlantic Station, was planned for the site and denied due to a lack of community support shortly before Snell arrived.
"Everyone was happy that at least Woody (Snell) and the Pacific Group came in and had discussion with the neighbors," said Waybright, one of many residents, county employees and commissioners who traveled by bus courtesy of Snell to visit Birkdale Village north of Charlotte, N.C., in summer 2004 to see what West Village was modeled after.
Homes and retail buildings now under construction are expected for staggered completion beginning late in the summer or early in the fall. The entire 63-acre project, including the additional village that hasn't yet broken ground, will be finished in about three years, Snell said.
"When you consider two years ago we were removing a crack house and a meth lab from here, it's pretty unbelievable, Snell said.
"We turned over a crime-infested area. If you only look at the improvements in home values, it's huge. They've tripled here since we started construction."
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