At 7 a.m. the lights come on inside a farmhouse built in the style of 1869. It sits across Mount Vernon Highway from City Hall. Summit Coffee has run the Williams-Payne House since this July, and its location page lists hours of 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, with seating indoors and out. Behind the house is Heritage Green, a terraced entertainment lawn next to the spring that gave the city its name.
Right now this is the calm side of downtown. Cranes are already up at Hillcrest on one side of Sandy Springs Circle, and the team behind them has just been chosen to build on the other side as well.
One team, two projects, one block apart
Hillcrest is the mixed-use project rising on the former church property at Mount Vernon Highway and Sandy Springs Circle. The developers are Atlanta-based Third & Urban and High Street Residential, a Trammell Crow Company subsidiary. On Oct. 20, the Sandy Springs City Council picked that same group to lead City Springs 2.0, the next phase of downtown, on city-owned land across the street.
That pairing is new. The first time the city tried a second phase, it chose Regent Partners and Morris & Fellows after the 2022 master plan, and Rough Draft Atlanta reported that effort fizzled out in 2024. This time, the company finishing one half of the block will also plan the other half.
| Hillcrest | City Springs 2.0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Site | About 8 acres at Mount Vernon Hwy and Sandy Springs Circle | About 5.5 city-owned acres south of Mount Vernon Hwy |
| Builders | Third & Urban with Trammell Crow Company | Trammell Crow Company through High Street Residential, with Third & Urban, DSM Real Estate Partners, Hedgewood Homes |
| What's planned | 362 apartments, 30 for-rent townhomes, about 19,000 sq ft of retail around a plaza | Apartments with ground-floor retail, a boutique hotel, 28 single-family homes |
| Status, late Oct. 2026 | Under construction, opening next summer | Council approved negotiations; rezoning ahead |
| Earliest finish | Summer 2027 | Q3 to Q4 2029 for the main parcels; full completion by 2030 |
For context, the first phase of City Springs covers 14 acres. It holds City Hall, the Performing Arts Center, the Conference Center, City Green, restaurants, fitness studios and apartments. Taken together, the two new projects come to roughly 13.5 acres, close to a second downtown of the same size, and they will be built around the park and farmhouse the first phase left alone.
Hillcrest arrives first and shows the approach
Since Hillcrest opens years before City Springs 2.0, it will be the first sign of how this team builds next to downtown. Rough Draft's Oct. 27 report says several townhomes, retail spaces, the parking deck and some apartments are already built. The five-story building along Mount Vernon Highway is going up, and a second crane is due on site in November. The land is steep, so the project steps down from Mount Vernon Highway along Sandy Springs Circle.
The first two retail tenants were announced Oct. 27, and both are already known to Buckhead neighbors:
- Chastain Creamery opened on West Wieuca Road at the start of this year. It sells ice cream with allergy-friendly options, including items free of gluten, dairy, nuts or added sugar.
- Salted Melon is a Charlotte-based "everyday gourmet" café. Hillcrest will be its second metro Atlanta location after its Buckhead debut in February. It serves salads, bowls, sandwiches, smoothies, pastries and specialty coffee and tea.
Salted Melon founder Thomas Coker told Rough Draft the company chose Hillcrest partly for its "patio-heavy retail spaces" and the city's plan for a pedestrian-friendly downtown. Hank Farmer of Third & Urban said the team is "in active negotiations with several more tenants."
Hillcrest also affects parking. The city's Development Authority approved a tax abatement in summer 2025 that caps the city's contribution at $4.9 million. In return, 111 parking spaces are set aside for public and city use. Those spaces sit right across from the land the city is now preparing to redevelop. Sandy Springs United Methodist Church sold the Hillcrest site to pay for improvements, and it is seeking a permit to build a new sanctuary on the north side of Mount Vernon Highway.
What the council approved on Oct. 20
Rough Draft reported that the vote was unanimous. It lets the city negotiate the sale of about 5.5 acres. Nothing has been sold, and the design is not final. The city's announcement lists its goals for the site: more local restaurants and retailers, a boutique hotel, more green space and public gathering areas, and both single-family and multifamily housing.
According to Rough Draft, the current site plan is more specific than that. Trammell Crow proposes closing part of Blue Stone Road and building an apartment complex with ground-floor retail. A boutique hotel sits on the same side of Mount Vernon Highway, facing City Hall. A 28-home subdivision would sit next to Heritage Green and the Williams-Payne House. Council members are considering closing Blue Stone Road for good between Mount Vernon Highway and Hilderbrand Drive. Sandy Springs Today reports that a Hedgewood Homes site plan dated July 31, 2026, lays out those 28 homes.
The road closure is the change regular visitors will notice most. Heritage Sandy Springs has a Bluestone Road address, so the street that leads to the green is the one up for discussion. No public source shows how the park would be reached if that stretch closes. Rough Draft notes that design, financial and contract details "have not been shared publicly."
Mayor Rusty Paul said council members set aside some of their own priorities to back the full plan. He also said he hopes Hedgewood's model of owner-occupied homes spreads to other aging shopping centers in the city. Council Member Andrew Chinsky spoke to the fact that the plan had been worked out in closed executive sessions. Rough Draft quoted him:
"This is the first time that we are able to speak about it publicly. Now that we're past this initial phase, I look forward to hearing more input from the public on the project … we can always make this better."
The calendar from here
The city's own timeline puts the public's best chance to shape the plan in the next few months, years before any construction:
- Coming weeks. City staff expected the negotiated documents to return to council within 30 to 45 days of the Oct. 20 vote. No meeting date has been posted yet.
- This winter. The city starts the rezoning and continues sale negotiations. Officials pointed to the rezoning hearings as the place for public input, and Mayor Paul said the public will have the next few months to give feedback.
- Summer 2027. Hillcrest opens. If the rezonings pass, the developers could close on the city land around the same time.
- Fall 2027 at the earliest. Site work could start once permits are issued, according to economic development director Chris Burnett.
- Q3 to Q4 2029. Burnett estimates about 24 months of construction on the two main parcels, then delivery. He expects the whole project to be done by 2030.
Burnett also said the city's development authority might offer property tax abatements as part of a deal that is still being negotiated. All of these dates are estimates, and Sandy Springs Today reports that the city keeps the right to talk to other firms if the deal falls through.
The farmhouse in the middle
The Williams-Payne House was built at the edge of town and has sat at the edge of downtown ever since. Before Summit Coffee, it had been empty since the start of COVID, according to Rough Draft's report on the lease, which council approved on Oct. 21, 2025. The lease requires Summit to respect city-permitted events and groups that use the green behind the house. Any extra lawn events Summit wants to hold need a city permit. The lawn was set up for the city's programming first. This year that included Concerts by the Springs, a Sunday-afternoon series at the Heritage Amphitheatre and Entertainment Lawn off Blue Stone Road.
Over time, much of downtown's activity has moved north across Mount Vernon Highway. The Saturday farmers market left this site for City Springs in 2018 and now runs on City Green. This year's biggest holiday night stays there too. Sparkle Sandy Springs is Sunday, Dec. 6, on City Green, with a nighttime parade and the lighting of the Christmas tree and menorah. Our summer look at the City Springs calendar traced how much of the week now happens on that side of the road.
The new plans reverse that direction. When Hillcrest and City Springs 2.0 are built, the farmhouse and Heritage Green will have apartments, a hotel, shops and 28 new homes on nearly every side. A Rough Draft rendering even shows a view of City Hall from the planned apartment complex's raised pool deck. Plans for the park itself have not been made public. Back in 2023, the earlier Phase II team said the springs and the event lawn would not be affected, but that promise belonged to a plan the city no longer pursues. Rezoning documents usually show how a site plan handles its edges, so the hearings this winter are when those details should come out.
Bobbie has watched Atlanta neighborhoods change around their landmarks for more than five decades. When a block is about to be rebuilt, the value of the homes nearby depends on details like which street stays open and what a new building looks out on. If you own near City Springs and want to know how Hillcrest and the next phase could change how your home is presented to buyers, Bobbie Schmitt can walk you through it. Request a Custom Marketing Plan, or start with a home valuation that reflects what is going up across the street.
