KDC Pivots From Office Project in Atlanta Suburb

A decade after developer KDC began construction on Park Center, a transit-oriented master-planned Class A office development in Atlanta’s Dunwoody, Ga., submarket, the firm has received approval to rezone the fourth and last parcel of the 17-acre site with a mix of office, hotel, retail and residential space.

The Dallas-based developer sought the changes earlier this year after evaluating the market and determining the needs of the campus have changed since KDC first broke ground on Park Center in the Perimeter Center area of Dunwoody in 2014. With a softening office market, the decision was made to add high-quality residential and hotel components to Park Center.

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On Wednesday night, the Dunwoody City Council approved the adjusted and amended zoning of the 2.56-acre parcel that will allow Dallas-based KDC to pivot from a planned fourth office tower to a 175-key hotel, 300 residential units, 22,000 square feet of retail and 300,000 square feet of office space. The plan for 245 Perimeter Center Parkway includes two towers on a common podium with a 20-story apartment tower and a combined office and hotel tower. Office space will encompass the lower 12 stories of one tower, while six hotel floors will top the office space.

Construction on the new mixed-use project is expected to begin in 2025.

Park Center history

When development began in 2014 at Park Center, the corporate office project was the largest of its kind in metro Atlanta at that time. The current campus, which is home to insurance giant State Farm’s Atlanta hub, contains three office towers. Park Center One, which has 600,000 square feet and is directly connected to the Dunwoody MARTA station, was completed in 2016. The 621,000-square-foot Park Center Two has more than 39,000 square feet of retail space and was delivered in 2020. Park Center Three, which was completed in 2021, has 440,000 square feet of office space. The property also has a 4,223-space parking structure.

In October 2022, KDC acquired Park Center Two and Three, along with the parking structure and the 2.56-acre parcel for Park Center Four in a sale-leaseback deal with State Farm. Those buildings and the Park Center Four parcel are located on 12.2 acres at Hammond Drive and Perimeter Center Parkway, adjacent to the MARTA station.

KDC developments

In addition to State Farm’s Atlanta and Dallas hubs, KDC has developed real estate for companies across the U.S. such as FedEx, J.P. Morgan Chase, Liberty Mutual, Raytheon, Toyota North America and Volkswagen. The real estate development and investment firm has its headquarters in Dallas and is supported by a national team with offices in Dunwoody and Charlotte, N.C.

Last month, a joint venture between KDC and Pacific Elm Properties secured a $290 million construction loan from Goldman Sachs Alternatives to develop Parkside Uptown, a 500,000-square-foot office asset in Dallas. The partners broke ground on the project at 1919 Woodall Rodgers Freeway in 2023 and it is slated for completion in 2027. Bank of America, which preleased 248,000 square feet at the property, will anchor the 30-story tower.

In March, KDC topped out Wells Fargo’s $455 million Project Falcon, a two-building, 850,000-square-foot office campus in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas. The campus, which will be Wells Fargo’s first net-positive energy office development, is expected to be completed by late 2025.