Trammell Crow Partnership Breaks Ground on Atlanta Mixed-Use

Science Square. Image courtesy of Trammell Crow Co.

A partnership of Trammell Crow Co., High Street Residential and Georgia Advanced Technology Ventures has broken ground on the first phase of Science Square, an 18-acre master-planned district in Atlanta.

High Street is the residential subsidiary of Trammell Crow Co. Its partner is a cooperative organization of the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Formerly known as Technology Enterprise Park, Science Square will offer lab/R&D and residential developments, roughly half a mile south of the Georgia Tech campus. The first phase of Science Square will comprise Trammell Crow’s Science Square Labs, a speculative 364,740-square-foot Class A lab/office tower, and High Street Residential’s 280-unit Class A residential building.

Designed by Perkins + Will, the 13-story Science Square Labs tower will feature floorplates of as much as 35,558 square feet for lab and clean room build-outs.

The tower will feature ground-floor retail space and an amenity package including a fitness center, a conference space and indoor/outdoor tenant lounge with a catering kitchen that opens up to an outdoor amenity deck. The lab building’s other features will include tenant spaces with private outdoor space, indoor/outdoor collaboration areas, a connection to Georgia Tech’s pedestrian/bike bridge to campus, covered parking and chemical storage space.

Trammell Crow is seeking LEED and WELL certifications, and the project will feature a 38,000-square-foot solar panel array atop the parking garage.

The developer also plans to build a floor of pre-build “graduator” speculative lab/office suites for growing life science companies.

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And as part of Trammell Crow’s partnership with Portal Innovations, the life science venture capital firm will occupy a full floor at Science Square Labs, offering fully equipped lab space, seed financing and management expertise for start-ups.

Designed by Rule Joy Trammell + Rubio, the 14-story residential building is HSR’s first residential development in Atlanta and will feature a mix of studio and one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. Amenities will include a bike room connected to the lobby, fitness center, yoga room, resort-style pool courtyard with clubroom, sky deck lounge and co-working space.

The building will also include an affordable housing component and ground-floor retail. The first units are slated to deliver in early 2024, with full completion later that year.

Georgia’s strong life science market

In a late July commentary, Chad Koenig, managing director with Cushman & Wakefield, said, “Georgia has enormous potential as a life science market, and the state has emerged in recent years as a leader for life science opportunities.” He noted such factors as the state’s strong higher education institutions and the presence of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Koenig pointed out that in 2021, Georgia life science companies had a record year for venture capital, raising a total of $255.8 million. Further, Georgia institutions have been awarded $1.13 billion in National Institutes of Health funding since the start of 2021.

As to Atlanta specifically, Koenig remarked that Boston Scientific and Moderna have announced plans to expand in the metro this year. He cited both Science Square and The Center for Global Health Innovation, Transwestern’s repositioning of an Atlanta office tower for life science space, also near Georgia Tech, as “exciting projects with space coming into the pipeline later this year and all the way into early 2024.”