Find out the latest on redevelopment of the former Varsity site near downtown Athens
Two development firms and an associated real estate investment company, with home bases in Georgia, North Carolina and Colorado, now have a hand in bringing a massive mixed-use development to the former longtime site of the Varsity near downtown Athens.
The 6.21-acre tract includes the Varsity property and adjacent tracts assembled by the Atlanta-area Gordy family, originators of the Varsity fast-food restaurants noted for their hot dogs.
The acreage covers most of the block bound by North Milledge Avenue and West Broad, North Chase and Reese streets. It is listed in documents submitted to the Athens-Clarke County Planning Department under the name 1000 Broad, its designation in documentation from each of the companies involved.
The site plan currently filed with Athens-Clarke County was initially submitted in July 2022. Because it complies with county zoning regulations, including a special “overlay district” added to the zoning ordinance in 2019 by the Athens-Clarke County Commission specifically for the 1000 Broad tract, it will not need to come before the county’s Planning Commission nor the county commission for further review. That could change, however, if developers need to seek some variance from provisions of the zoning ordinance or the overlay district.
Who is in charge of redevelopment?
Leading the 1000 Broad project is Atlanta-based Fuqua Development, a mixed-use project development and leasing firm. On its website, the company describes 1000 Broad as a 400,000-square-foot development that “will include up to 300 residential units, a grocer and additional shops and restaurants.”
Documents on file with the Athens-Clarke County Planning Department list a limited liability corporation, NRF Athens Property Owner LLC, as the owner of the tract. According to Athens-Clarke County property records, the tract was sold to NRF Athens Property Owner LLC in July 2021 for $8.5 million.
A phone number is listed on the planning documents associated with NRF Athens Property Owner LLC belongs to Fuqua Development, but a telephone message was not immediately returned last week.
However, the company’s website provides some insight into its wide-ranging mixed-use initiatives beyond 1000 Broad.
More: Magnolia trees saved in latest Fuqua plan for developing the former Athens Varsity site
Fuqua Development lists 20 other projects, including Battery Atlanta at Truist Park, home of the Atlanta Braves, along with other metropolitan Atlanta projects. The firm’s portfolio also includes projects in Florida, Alabama and Kentucky.
Beyond Fuqua Development’s association with the project, the Georgia Secretary of State Corporations Division lists two other companies associated with 1000 Broad. Northwood Ravin, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based development, construction and property management company, is listed as the principal office for NRF Athens Property Owner LLC.
Northwood Investors, a real estate management firm with U.S. offices in Denver, New York, San Francisco and Santa Monica, and overseas offices in London, Paris and Luxembourg, is also associated with NRF Athens Property Owner LLC. The firm’s Denver address is listed as company’s “principal record address.”
More: The Varsity property officially transfers ownership with a nearly $8.5 million sales price
Neither Northwood Ravin nor Northwood Investors immediately returned telephone calls seeking information on their roles with 1000 Broad.
On its website, Northwood Ravin lists 1000 Broad as one of nine projects currently “under development.” The other projects include 30-acre Scaleybark, a mixed-use project in Charlotte, and multifamily residential projects in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Tampa, Florida.
The 1000 Broad project does not appear on Northwood Investors’ website. However, Northwood Investors’ operations do include Northwood Ravin initiatives.
According to its website, Northwood Investors’ work includes management of office, hospitality, retail and multifamily housing properties. The website shows current investments in more than 50 properties, from a 24-story office building in Manhattan to a shopping center in northern Italy to an office and research and development campus in Tempe, Arizona.
What is coming to 1000 Broad?
Among the questions yet to be answered regarding 1000 Broad is which grocery store and what other retail businesses might become part of the project. But the range of clients served by Fuqua Development might provide some hints of what may be coming to 1000 Broad.
In terms of potential grocery tenants at 1000 Broad, Fuqua Development clients include Publix, Whole Foods Market and Sprouts Farmers Market. The company also lists CVS and Walgreens pharmacies among its clients. Fuqua Development’s retail clients include Kay Jewelers and Famous Footwear, among more than 40 other businesses.
When installed on the tract, 1000 Broad’s retail spaces will be on ground floors, with residential spaces on upper floors. Parking for much of the site will be a ground-floor deck proposed below the grocery store.
How we got to here
For at least six years prior to the sale of the Varsity property, the Gordy family had been acquiring land adjacent to the Varsity tract. Those acquisitions became a clear indication to county officials – Athens-Clarke County Commissioner Melissa Link in particular − that the block was being targeted for redevelopment.
At one point, demolition permits were obtained for historic residential properties along Reese Street, but that process was halted. Link persuaded the Gordy family to transfer the potentially historic properties to the county government, which in turn transferred them to the Athens Land Trust.
Link also took on creation of the West Broad Special Zoning District, the zoning ordinance overlay now governing development of 1000 Broad. Link crafted the language for the overlay district that is now a part of the zoning ordinance.
Among other conditions, the overlay district limits residential density to a maximum of 50 bedrooms per gross acre. Other provisions limit building heights on the tract. No structure can be more than 65 feet high, and buildings within 50 feet of Reese Street can be just 30 feet high. In other specified sections of the tract, buildings can rise no higher than 40 feet.
Other restrictions include limiting multifamily residential housing to no more than two bathrooms per unit and limiting parking to 2.5 spaces per multifamily housing unit.
Further, any parking structures on the tract must meet strict requirements in terms of construction materials, and any parking visible from the street must be screened by vegetative plantings.
Additionally, the overlay requires a 15-foot setback from the property line for any structures on North Milledge Avenue and much of North Chase Street, along with Reese Street. For some parts of Reese Street, setbacks could be even more strict, with a foot of setback required for every foot of vertical building surface facing the street.
“The aim of that overlay was to protect the neighborhood,” Link said. She went on to call the overlay a “no-brainer,” adding that for her, preservation of one of the threatened homes on Reese Street “was really important.”
That property, now serving as affordable apartment housing, had been home to revered local educator Annie Burney, memorialized in the name of Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle School on Tallassee Road.
“Saving the Burney House was really important,” Link said. The residence is an important touchstone for local Black history, having been initially purchased in 1906 by Annie Burney’s father, John, another local educator. Also, Annie Burney’s husband, Isadore, was the second Black dentist in Athens.
Link called the Varsity tract “a good location for that” type of development, in part because it is “definitely in town.”
Link went on to say that she’s currently more interested in seeing how the structures planned for 1000 Broad will look.
“I’m more interested in elevations (renderings of actual buildings) at this point,” she said. Link added that she is hoping those involved in the project “get a little creative with the architecture,” offering more than just blank exterior walls.
“I’m a big fan of cornice,” she said.
Progress on plans for 1000 Broad had been scheduled for review by county planners late last month, but no one representing the project was on hand at the scheduled time. Plans review sessions, when needed, are held at the Planning Department on Thursdays.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Latest on redevelopment of the former Varsity site near downtown Athens
