Sandy Springs has a new team in place to finally get its long-delayed downtown expansion off the ground. The City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to begin negotiating the sale of 5.5 acres of municipal land to Trammell Crow Company, clearing the way for a second phase of the City Springs district that has stalled twice before.
The vote came after a competitive solicitation that the city launched in June, according to a city announcement, which says Trammell Crow Company will serve as master developer through its residential subsidiary, High Street Residential, with development support from Third and Urban LLC and DSM Real Estate Partners. As Rough Draft Atlanta reports, the council's unanimous vote authorizes the city to proceed with land-sale negotiations for the 5.5-acre site, with Trammell Crow Company selected as the city's lead developer.
Hedgewood Homes is also assisting the development team, per the same report. Plans call for a multifamily complex with ground-floor retail, a boutique hotel and a subdivision of 28 single-family homes, though the project still needs rezoning approval and a finalized property sale before any of it can move forward.
A Long Road to This Vote
This isn't the city's first swing at redeveloping the parcels just south of Mount Vernon Road across from City Green. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reported Wednesday that Sandy Springs officials chose the new real estate team to help create the next phase of the City Springs mixed-use district, a project staff writer Tyler Wilkins covered for the outlet's commercial real estate section.
Earlier efforts fizzled badly. When the council awarded a contract to a development team back in June 2023, construction had been expected to start in late 2024 — that timeline never materialized, per Rough Draft Atlanta's reporting on the district. A separate push to redevelop a walkable downtown with Regent Partners and Morris & Fellows also collapsed in 2024. The outlet notes that attempts to develop Phase Two of City Springs have repeatedly stalled due to market constraints and financing difficulties.
City Springs itself opened in stages, with the first phase — City Hall and the Performing Arts Center — debuting in May 2018, and the broader 14-acre development considered fully open by that September once retail and restaurant spaces came online. Today the district includes a four-acre City Green, restaurants, exercise boutiques and apartments, according to the outlet's community profile.
Timeline Still Fluid, Officials Caution
If negotiations and rezoning proceed, construction on City Springs 2.0 could begin as early as fall 2027, with delivery of two of the project's parcels projected for the third or fourth quarter of 2029 and overall completion anticipated by 2030, Rough Draft Atlanta reports. The city says it will pursue necessary rezonings and advance negotiations on the property's eventual sale as the project moves ahead.
Trammell Crow Company and Third & Urban aren't new to the neighborhood. The pair are already building Hillcrest, an 8.1-acre mixed-use development west of Sandy Springs Circle, according to Trammell Crow Company. That project is planned to include 362 apartment units, 30 for-rent townhomes and 19,240 square feet of retail space, with groundbreaking slated for June 2025 and completion targeted for 2027.
Hillcrest also carries a parking arrangement relevant to City Springs' broader footprint: the agreement designates 111 parking spaces at Hillcrest for city use through a parking easement, with the city's investment in parking and related infrastructure capped at $4.87 million, according to Appen Media. For now, City Springs 2.0 remains a concept tied to land-sale talks and rezoning steps still to come, rather than a locked-in construction plan.
