Fresh renderings: Phipps Plaza redevelopment designs unveiled (again)

In less than a month, construction crews are set to begin moving dirt on the major mixed-use transformation slated for Buckhead’s Phipps Plaza.

The shopping center’s owner, Simon Property, alongside architects The Beck Group, unveiled initial sketches in November 2017 that showed plans for a 13-story office tower, a 90,000-square-foot Life Time Athletic “living and entertainment destination,” and a tony 150-room Nobu Hotel and restaurant.

Now, new renderings—a significant upgrade from past examples—tease the 46,000-square-foot food court beneath the Life Time complex, which is expected to host 20 stalls for vendors, plus outdoor space.

The blueprints get prettier each time, largely because of criticism by the Buckhead Development Review Committee.

The multi-building development is primed to rise on the northern side of the mall, where a Belk is set to be razed as construction kicks off in August.

Nobu could open as soon as late 2019, according to an Atlanta magazine report in November, and the rest of the project is set to begin opening in phases around springtime 2020.

It’s not the only significant hotel news in the area.

Down the street from the Phipps Plaza development, a Ritz-Carlton hotel is reportedly being designed that would bring the revered brand back to Buckhead.

And last week, plans were unveiled for another posh market first—a Dream Hotel mixed-use concept—to claim a site just north of the Buckhead Triangle.

• Nobu is finally coming to Atlanta—and our film industry is partially why [Atlanta magazine]