Buckhead medical office building set to claim Peachtree Road parking lot

A fixture for decades, the Peachtree Road “Atlanta’s Population Now” people-counting electric sign is about to get a new neighbor, developers say.

A 75,000-square-foot medical office building described as state-of-the-art is scheduled to break ground in June, claiming a Buckhead surface parking lot across the street from Piedmont Atlanta Hospital and the Shepherd Center, according to project leaders Darlington Medical Building Partners.

The five-story building, Darlington Medical Center, is designed to be attractively modern with flexible floorplans for tenants of varying sizes, capitalizing on strong demand for more medical office space in the Peachtree corridor, developers say. It’s scheduled to open in March 2020.

Project leaders tell Curbed Atlanta the building will rise on land closest to Peachtree reserved now for parking at the 1950s-era Darlington apartments, which are undergoing a renovation.

“The population sign everyone knows and loves will stay,” a rep wrote via email.

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It’s the latest addition to Atlanta’s hot medical office market.

CBRE’s first vice president Heather Lamb, who’s leading project marketing and leasing, said Atlanta is experiencing a 15-year low in vacancy rates—even after notching the third highest amount of medical office deliveries in the U.S. last year.

Across the street, a 16-story Piedmont Hospital medical office tower recently topped out, while Northside Hospital wrapped a 12-story project on Midtown’s West Peachtree Street last year.

Meanwhile, along the Perimeter, a mixed-use compound with a medical office component is in the works a block from Northside Hospital’s main Sandy Springs campus.

Jay Gipson, of project developer The Gipson Company, noted in a press release the “modern and architecturally distinct new medical building” made sense in the area, adding “to the amazing skyline changes that Piedmont Hospital and The Shepard Center have started.”