Mixed-use development backed by Falcons’s Julio Jones set to launch this month

After years of struggling to take flight, Atlanta Falcons star Julio Jones’s ambitions of entering metro Atlanta’s real estate game are set to happen this month.

Pollack Shores Real Estate Group, a multifamily developer and investment firm that’s active across the metro, announced plans today to break ground on a 16-acre, mixed-use concept later this month near Mall of Georgia in Gwinnett. They’re partnering on the project with Ariston Group (named after the Greek word for “best”), led by Jones, among the NFL’s top wide-receivers, and principal investor Jon Guven.

Initially pitched in 2016, the project is expected to deliver 285 luxury apartments, dining and retail slots, a 110-room Hilton Garden Inn, and pedestrian connections to Ivy Creek Greenway, a 3.6-mile walking and biking trail through a wooded nature preserve.

“There’s a lot of renewed optimism for this project given Pollack Shores’s prior track record on significant mixed-use projects like The Battery Atlanta,” where the developer built three apartment communities, a rep noted in an email to Curbed Atlanta.

Ariston was supposed to have brought a $180 million mix of restaurants, retail, more than 540 apartments, and a 25-story hotel concept—until those plans were scaled back.

Ariston picked Pollack Shores as the multifamily developer and master site developer last year, officials said.

The first apartments are scheduled to deliver in May.

Noted Guven in a prepared statement: “Ariston reflects our commitment to creating a pedestrian-friendly community that will encompass luxury apartment living, brand-name hospitality, dining and entertainment immediately adjacent to the dominant retail node in Gwinnett County.”

UPDATE, July 25, 11:34 a.m.—The developer has provided these more realistic renderings for the Ariston project below:

Ariston’s initial plans for the site, as seen below, were substantially more ambitious:

Ariston.net

Ariston.net