In Midtown, 40-plus-story mixed-use tower proposal is showing signs of life

After being withdrawn from consideration before December’s Midtown Development Review Committee meeting, a 46-story, mixed-use tower proposal is headed back before the subdistrict’s planning leaders Tuesday.

Large enough to help redefine central Midtown’s skyline, the big idea is hardly new.

It’s been years since plans initially emerged for the 1138 Peachtree Street project, and the first time developer Trillist presented the proposal to DRC officials was in 2013, according to Midtown Alliance. Earlier, unrelated plans for the site had called for a Mandarin Oriental condominium-hotel hybrid tower once described as the “Crown Jewel of the Midtown Mile.”

Trillist, via Midtown Alliance

In recent years, architecture wonks have wondered aloud if Trillist’s (now) 46-story structure would ever materialize.

A thumbs-up from the DRC could put that possibility one step closer to reality.

On Tuesday, the DRC will weigh in on revised plans for the project. Those plans call for 317 residences, 10,000 square feet of retail space, and an eight-story parking podium between Peachtree Street and Crescent Avenue where they meet 13th Street.

(That’s one less floor of parking than the proposal called for in advance of last month’s DRC meeting, although that element and others are subject to change between now and a possible groundbreaking.)

1138 Peachtree Street is expected to be accessible by way of a covered walkway on Peachtree Street, and the parking deck would be accessible via “split ingress and egress along Peachtree Street and full access (for vehicles and loading) from Crescent Avenue,” per the DRC agenda. “All driveway access points lead to a central drop off area within the parking deck.”

If the DRC’s 2019 actions are any indication of what planning leaders will suggest for the proposal, Trillist can look forward to requests for improved pedestrian accommodations.

Smallwood, courtesy of Dewberry Group

The project site is across Peachtree Street from the Campanile building, which is undergoing a significant expansion that’s also expected to be discussed by the DRC on Tuesday.

The Smallwood-designed addition to the late-1980s office tower promises more than 123,000 square feet of new office and retail space, most of which is being wrapped around the foot of the building.

At 1155 Peachtree Street, plans call for “six new floors of commercial space around the base of the office tower and an expanded 21st floor,” the agenda says, adding: “New ground floor retail uses are accessible from Peachtree, 13th, and Juniper streets.”