NAP Closes on Alpharetta Site, Plans Mixed-Use Project

By Georgiana Mihaila, Associate Editor

North American Properties is moving ahead on plans for a mixed-use project on the 106-acre site of the stalled Prospect Park development in Alpharetta. The Atlanta-based company recently set the stage with its $22.8 million purchase of the parcel from Wells Fargo & Co., lender to the project’s previous developer, Stan Thomas.

Thomas envisioned a large-scale residential, hotel and retail mixed-use project that was to become a luxury destination for tourists, residents and shoppers; the project was to include $1.5 million homes and a luxury hotel on top of the retail component. Thomas was able to build only a parking deck for a proposed Whole Foods store before cash ran short and he filed for bankruptcy protection for the site.

North American, on the other hand, is eyeing a vibrant, modestly scaled retail and residential project that will reflect current retail and real estate market conditions. Preliminary plans call for about 400,000 square feet of retail space on the site at the intersection of Georgia 400 and Old Milton Parkway, about as much space as Thomas had proposed. Phase one is scheduled for completion in October 2013.

In a statement issued when the Prospect Park site was put under contract last month, North American described the acquisition as part of its strategy of developing blue-chip retail projects in first-rate locations. Last December, the company and its joint-venture partner, CB Richard Ellis Investors, bought Atlantic Town Center, the 586,000-square-foot retail component of the Atlantic Station mixed-use complex in Midtown Atlanta.