Q&A: The New Apartment Community on Dresden Drive

This week, Brookhaven Patch that Hines, the Houston-based real estate development company, would make Ashford Park the place where it would build its first Atlanta-based apartment community.

We caught up with Kurt Hartman - a Hines senior vice president who manages construction projects in Atlanta, the Carolinas and Tennessee - to answer questions about the new Hines Project in our Q & A below.

SA: There have been conflicting reports that the new development will be at the corner of Peachtree Road and Dresden Drive or Dresden and Apple Valley Road. Please clarify where exactly the new apartment community will be located.

KH: The location is Dresden between Ellijay and Fernwood, caddy-corner from the restaurant.

SA: What about Brookhaven, specifically Ashford Park, caught Hines’ attention and ultimately was the deciding factor in building your first Atlanta-based apartment community here?

KH: There were a lot of things we liked. We liked the neighborhood. We liked the activity on the street. It doesn't feel like a manufactured environment. This is a great opportunity to meet a demand that isn't served right now. There are a lot of young professionals and young married couples who would like to live in this community, but may not be at the place to afford to buy a home. The area has good access to the job center downtown, the CDC, Buckhead, and access to MARTA.

SA: What will the price point be for the rentals?

KH: We don't have prices yet. We don't even have unit layouts. What we know is that there will be 215 units, about four stories, a mix between one and two bedrooms with 70-75 percent being one-bedrooms.  There will be no three bedrooms. 

SA: When will construction begin?

KH: The basic plan is that we'll start construction mid summer. From start to finish the project takes between 14-18 months.

SA: What kind of amenities do you expect the community to have?

KH: It'll have a pool, an outdoor area, outdoor grills, a fitness center, and some sort of gathering/meeting place inside.

SA: Some residents have expressed a desire for commercial and/or retail space, i.e. stores and shops, to be part of the ground floor plans of the apartment community. Is this something that Hines is considering?

KH: Right now where we are, the site is not very big. It's fairly small and we're snugged into it with what we have. If you add retail, you wouldn't be able to get the money from a lender or equity sources. That will come back one day,  but for the foreseeable future, it doesn't exists.

The retail is doing fairly well in that area, but not killing it.  The last thing they'd want is to have more introduced. [The apartment community] is really intended to be a piece of the neighborhood. We’re going to go with what we have and do all we can to activate the street, it's really meant to greet the street and engage the neighborhood.

SA: So, this wouldn’t be a gated community?

KH: No. We haven’t done the design, but the intention is that it will fit in very well with the context of the neighborhood. We’re not going to do anything that doesn’t fit in.