The Related Group held a grand opening ceremony April 12 at its Icon Midtown rental tower in Atlanta’s Midtown Arts District. The property is Related’s first in Georgia and marks the company’s third completed Icon building nationwide over the past six months.
The 39-story tower includes 390 studio-, one-, two-, and three-bedroom units, with rents starting at the low $1,800s and climbing upward of $5,600. On-site features include an 11th-floor outdoor amenity deck complete with pool; infinity-edge hot tub; outdoor dining room, bar, and fireplace; and game area. The 39th floor will include an expansive clubroom with bar, billiards room, theater room, and outdoor entertainment terrace with fireplace, tables, and views of the Atlanta region. Other amenities include a fitness center with cycling room, a steam room and sauna, and an on-site spa with massage tables.
Icon Midtown will also include a carefully curated collection of museum-quality artwork, which includes a massive outdoor mural by celebrated artist Alex “Hense” Brewer. The mural–sculpture hybrid spans upward of 10 stories and will serve as a landmark for the entire neighborhood.
The project’s second phase of development will include one of the nation’s largest Whole Foods groceries, which is expected to open in early 2019. Encompassing more than 77,000 square feet on three levels, the location will include seven food venues, including a full-service pub restaurant, cooking school, coffee roaster, rooftop terrace, and a variety of other culinary offerings.
The project is part of Miami-based Related’s growing “Icon” brand, which the company says leverages demand for luxury rental residences throughout urban core neighborhoods and targets the rapidly growing “renter by choice” segment. Additional Icon towers include Icon Las Olas in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Icon Harbour Island and Icon Central in Tampa Bay, Fla.; and Icon Buckhead in Atlanta.
Related broke ground on Icon Buckhead late last year, and Steve Patterson, president of Related Development, where he is responsible for all of the company’s multifamily rental and mixed-use development activities, says he expects to deliver units in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Other amenities include a fitness center with cycling room, a steam room and sauna, and an on-site spa with massage tables.
Related, Patterson says, targets markets with high job growth and substantial apartment development. The firm also examines the number of permits issued to “get a feel for future production. So that gives us a snapshot of the deliveries two years out so we can see jobs in the trailing 12 months, relative to permits that will deliver product in two years,” he says. “That gives us a pretty good idea of what we have to look forward to over the next three to five years in a market.”
For Atlanta, all signs indicate a green light for Related. Several major companies, including UPS, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche, have moved their operations to the metro in recent years, helping fuel job growth. “Production has definitely been in line with that job growth, if not lagging behind,” Patterson adds.
Metro Atlanta saw 13,531 apartment deliveries in 2017, according to RealPage.
