Halpern Enterprises to Break Ground On Multi-Use Development

By Joshua Ayers, Senior Editor

Smyrna, Ga.—Atlanta-based Halpern Enterprises will break ground on a new 48-acre development Aug. 28 that will add 153 single-family homes, a 274-unit luxury rental apartment community and a 47,593-square-foot neighborhood retail center to the Atlanta suburb of Smyrna, Ga.  The site is located on the former Belmont Hills Shopping Center and is the current location of Smyrna Elementary School, which serves about 900 students.

“This location has continued to improve in recent years as high-quality projects have been built throughout Smyrna, spurred on by the city’s investment in its downtown,” says Steve West, Halpern Enterprises’ vice president of development. “And now, the planed Braves development about two miles away will only add to the area’s quality of life for people to live, work and play.”

Wood Partners will develop the luxury community, which it has dubbed Alta Station at Belmont. The 274-unit community is expected to begin pre-leasing in the spring of 2015.

“We could not be more excited about Alta Station at Belmont,” says Bennett Sands, a development director for Wood Partners. “Smyrna is arguably one of the most desirable, close-in suburban communities in Atlanta. It has a small-town feel with outstanding schools, restaurants and public spaces, but also offers the conveniences of being minutes from the Cobb Galleria and Midtown office markets and all that Greater Atlanta has to offer. Alta Station will fill the void in Smyrna housing stock by offering a sophisticated and modern living experience in a community that embraces the traditional neighborhood feel. Our pedestrian-friendly, urban design will set us apart from most of the garden apartment communities in Smyrna and Cobb County.”

The single family component of the development will include 153 homes by David Weekley Homes in a residential section that will be named Village of Belmont. The homes in this section will include three collections of Weekley’s Central Living product and will be priced from the high $200,000s to $400,000-plus, with sales beginning in early 2015.

The Halpern Enterprises-developed neighborhood retail center will round out the development. The first spaces are scheduled to complete by next summer and tenants are expected to include local retailers and restaurants.

The development replaces the Belmont Hills Shopping Center, which was leveled two years ago after being determined to be functionally obsolete. That 480,000-square-foot center was completed in 1954 and was purchased by Halpern in 1967.