By Tyler Wilkins (Atlanta Business Chronicle) – Dec. 13, 2022
Johns Creek is poised to finally have a central place for residents and workers to spend time with one another, something the north Atlanta suburb has craved for years.
On Monday, Johns Creek City Council rezoned a 42-acre site at McGinnis Ferry Road and Johns Creek Parkway. That decision will allow Toro Development Co. to replace an office park deserted by State Farm Insurance Co. with apartments, townhomes, shops, restaurants and public space.
“The worldliness of the Johns Creek resident — coupled with their income level and education level — creates the perfect storm for many of the commercial operators that we’ll accommodate,” Mark Toro, founder of the namesake firm, told Atlanta Business Chronicle in June.
In his previous role at North American Properties, Toro created Avalon in Alpharetta and breathed life into several projects in Intown Atlanta, including Colony Square and Atlantic Station. The project in Johns Creek will be called Medley, a nod to the suburb’s diversity and variety of experiences that will be offered.
Toro expects to break ground on Medley by the third quarter of 2023. The project is intended to serve as a catalyst for launching a 192-acre town center, which will include the future Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE: BSX) manufacturing facility adjacent to Toro’s project. The city envisions a town center with housing, offices, restaurants and shops woven together by paths and parks.
“We have liftoff,” said Mayor John Bradberry in a news release. “[Toro Development Co.] is offering something to our community that is special and unique, and something we really need.”
The plan calls for 137 for-sale townhomes and 750 apartments, a concentration of residential density needed to maintain foot traffic at all hours of the day, Toro said. A few residents and elected officials hoped to see some of those apartments swapped out for condos, but that’s now a challenging task for developers to pull off, especially in suburban areas.
“The experience we had at Avalon overwhelmingly proves the thesis that feet on the street is what drives commercial success,” Toro told the Chronicle in September. “It’s what creates what we call the third place effect, occasioned by gathering human energy.”
Besides the residential component, Medley will have 80,000 square feet of retail, 60,000 square feet of restaurants and 60,000 square feet of entertainment space. An existing four-story building will be converted into offices with ground-level commercial space, while an existing two-story building will be torn down.
To execute the vision for Medley, Franklin Street’s Len Erickson and Kaitlyn Theriot will handle retail leasing, while Stream Realty Partners’ Bryan Heller and Bill Graddy will handle office leasing. Nelson Worldwide will serve as the architect. Kimley-Horn is the engineer for the project, while Site Solutions will be the landscape architect.
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