A five-story office tower that UPS once filled with roughly 500 workers is being torn down in Sandy Springs to make room for a $139 million apartment community, with demolition already underway since summer and the first residents expected to move in by 2028. The 382-unit project, called Caldwell, is rising on the 6.9-acre site at 35 Glenlake Parkway NE, just south of MARTA's North Springs station.
Global investment firm Kennedy Wilson acquired the property in late 2025 and is developing Caldwell in partnership with Japan's Shimizu Corporation, according to WSB-TV. The deal closed for $16.46 million in December 2025, according to Capdex, which reported the sale covered the roughly 133,000-square-foot office building UPS had occupied. UPS vacated the site in July 2025, relocating its corporate employees to other Metro Atlanta facilities as part of a broader consolidation of its regional real estate footprint, per Multi-Housing News.
John McCullough, president of Kennedy Wilson's multifamily development group, called the acquisition an exciting milestone as the company expands its multifamily development platform in Georgia and begins its first partnership with Shimizu. He added that Caldwell sits in an area with strong employment growth and an affluent resident base facing limited new multifamily supply. The project marks Kennedy Wilson's first multifamily development in Georgia and its first ground-up residential build in the state.
A First-Time Partnership Between Two Global Firms
Caldwell also represents Kennedy Wilson's first partnership with Shimizu Corporation, a Japanese firm expanding into the American housing market. Satoshi Arai, president of Shimizu Realty Development (U.S.A.), Inc., said Shimizu values its inaugural partnership with Kennedy Wilson and is leveraging the firm's expertise in high-growth markets, adding that Caldwell will expand Shimizu's U.S. presence and provide high-quality residential solutions. Robert Miyajima, a senior vice president at Kennedy Wilson, said the company is proud to begin its first partnership with Shimizu and expects the relationship to grow.
Kennedy Wilson manages roughly $38 billion in assets across North America and Europe and has completed more than $70 billion in real estate transactions since 2009, according to Pulse 2.0. That scale underscores the ambition behind a project the developers describe as designed to address housing demand in a submarket that has seen limited recent residential construction.
Units, Amenities and a Transit-Adjacent Location
The finished five-story complex will hold 382 residential units averaging 937 square feet each, plus more than 17,500 square feet of indoor and outdoor amenities. The site sits about two miles north of Interstate 285 and directly adjacent to U.S. 19 and Highway 400, putting residents close to the Central Perimeter's employment centers, per Urbanize Atlanta. Its position just south of the North Springs MARTA station gives future tenants direct rail access without needing a car for the daily commute.
The development team includes Atlanta-based general contractor New South Construction, architectural firm Dynamik Design and civil engineering firm PEC+, tasked with carrying out the physical design and construction of the five-story community. Demolition of the old UPS building began this summer, clearing the way for construction to move forward on the site.
Redeveloping Office Space Instead of Building From Scratch
Sandy Springs has seen less multifamily supply growth than the broader Atlanta area in recent years, and the developers say converting a vacant office building rather than building on undeveloped land helps maximize land utility while creating badly needed housing. That approach matters in a city where officials have previously pushed back on new standalone apartment projects: in 2022, Mayor Rusty Paul publicly urged developers to avoid proposing new standalone apartment complexes for at least three years, noting that more than 60% of the city's housing stock was already rental housing, according to Bisnow. Paul argued the city needed more owner-occupied housing to achieve balance, a stance that has made repurposed office sites like the former UPS tower an easier path forward for developers than ground-up apartment construction.
Meanwhile, local affordability data illustrates why new rental supply, wherever it comes from, matters to residents. A 2024 city housing assessment found that 39.5% of Sandy Springs households were cost-burdened by housing in 2022, with that figure climbing to 58.5% among householders under age 24, according to the City of Sandy Springs. The city's median household income of $107,461 runs about 20% above the broader Atlanta metro median, per Census Reporter figures, underscoring the tension between the area's affluence and the strain younger renters face.
Part of a Broader Wave of Office-to-Housing Conversions
Caldwell is not an isolated case. Hoodline has previously reported on aging Central Perimeter office parks across Sandy Springs, Dunwoody and Brookhaven being teed up for demolition or residential conversion amid post-pandemic office vacancy and strong housing demand. Just days ago, Brookhaven approved 320 apartments at the Ashford Green office park near Interstate 285, another sign that capital is actively chasing residential conversions on underused office properties throughout the Central Perimeter.
Construction on Caldwell is expected to continue over the next several years, with Kennedy Wilson and Shimizu targeting a 2028 opening for the community's first residents.
