COVER STORY, JANUARY 2007

ENGINEERING A NEW CONCEPT
Mixed-use developments challenge engineers.
Daniel Beaird

It seems like you can’t speak with a developer or a city planner today without discussing the next mixed-use project. Mixed-use has gone from a buzzword to an evolving trend in the commercial real estate industry during the past few years, and it shows no signs of slowing down as more people move back into urban areas. Cities are drawing the masses back through these mixed-use developments that offer the opportunity to live, work and play without stepping a foot inside an automobile. With the combination of residential, office and retail space in one setting, developers are facing new challenges that don’t typically emerge in single-use properties; and they are turning to engineering and planning firms to figure it all out. Atlanta-based Highland Engineering has worked with developers on mixed-use projects inside Atlanta and in the metro Atlanta area. The unique challenges that mixed-use projects present have led Highland, and other engineering firms, to assess the stresses on the property and surrounding areas from multiple angles.

Many mixed-use developments involve more than one developer, especially if the original developer is only versed in a certain area like residential. That developer will usually choose to bring in a partner to address the retail or office space concerns of a mixed-use development. Therefore, an engineering firm usually has to cater to multiple owners when assessing the property; and when a developer or planner wants to pull together two or more pieces of land into a mixed-use property, unforeseen challenges can occur.

“A frequent oversight for developers of mixed-use projects is circulation of traffic,” says Barry Dunlop, an engineering associate at Highland Engineering. “Sometimes challenges arise when determining how to circulate customers in and out of the public right-of-ways and the property itself.” According to Dunlop, developers and planners need to think about what sort of adjustments need to be made to the egress into the property and the exits out of property.

Another major concern, especially in the cities like Atlanta, developers tend to not focus on storm water detention issues. “There are a lot of places that have utility and sewer elements that need to be thought out as cities are increasing detention requirements,” Dunlop says. “Gone are the days when we could take a property that was all paved, knock it down, build another building and not have to provide any more additional detention.”

The detention element is often pushed underground into a vault or pipe. “A large city’s streets and drainage systems are typically inadequate, so it becomes a challenge to get water out of the underground vault or pipe and into the public system,” Dunlop says.

Large urban cities have typically kept minimal records regarding existing underground utilities. “On many projects, we’ve had to hire a third party utility locator or surveyor to locate fiber optics, power lines, gas lines sewer and water lines,” Dunlop says. “Hidden utilities are becoming a very tough scenario to work with.” However, suburban areas that surround the larger cities tend to keep better utility records, so it’s much easier to know what’s in the ground in those areas. “The streets aren’t cluttered with buried power lines and fiber optic conduits,” Dunlop says.

TWELVE Centennial Park in Atlanta

Highland Engineering faced many unique challenges on a recent project in Atlanta, Novare’s TWELVE Centennial Park, a hotel and condominium tower. The project was built next to a MARTA station, Atlanta’s mass transportation system; and questions arose in terms of egress out of the MARTA station and how MARTA would get its maintenance vehicles in and out of the station. “We were constructing a building in front of the maintenance access to the MARTA station on West Peachtree Street, and had to work with MARTA as to how to lessen the effect on its maintenance vehicles getting into the station,” Dunlop says. On top of that, the Georgia Department of Transportation was realigning Alexander Street into Ivan Allen Boulevard and changing the topography of that street. “We were actually planning a retail frontage along that street,” Dunlop says. “The client wanted parallel parking around West Peachtree Street and on Ivan Allen Boulevard, so we dealt with the traffic department to find mutually acceptable solutions to those issues.”

The project was also located close to the Interstate 75/85 Connector. “Right-of-way issues had to be dealt with as well as grading and topography because the Connector sits so low as compared to the property,” Dunlop says. The project is being built in phases so Highland had to design the project so that Phase I could stand independent of Phase II, which meant that the utilities of each phase were designed separately.  This list of challenges is typical for engineers as they undertake mixed-use projects of this nature.

And they should get used to it. Mixed-use developments are here to stay. “The days are rapidly slowing when a developer could just get a multifamily zoning and put up an apartment complex,” Dunlop says. “But, if a developer can figure out how to create a mixed-use out of the property and use different zoning densities on a property, then city planners and adjacent neighborhoods become interested.” Today’s real estate market is readily accepting these types of live, work and play environments, which encourages more walking and less driving.

To be successful with a mixed-use development, according to Dunlop, developers need to assemble a knowledgeable and experienced team of civil engineers, planners, and architects. They also need to perform a thorough due diligence study, which would include discovering neighborhood needs and desires, utility and transportation infrastructure capacities, and jurisdictional requirements.

“One must be sensitive to surrounding existing uses and neighborhood characteristics. One way to do this is by providing a transition from less intense uses to more intense uses. If your property borders single-family, then build single-family to that border, then step up the density to townhomes, and then step up the density to condominiums or apartments, and then to retail and commercial,” Dunlop says. “Therefore, the developer is pushing the higher density project away from its neighbors, but still getting the density yield that he would like out of the project so that it will be financially feasible and market acceptable.”

It’s a win-win for the developer and the community. The development company gets the density it needs, and the community draws a larger population that is interested in live, work and play. As mixed-use developments continue to be built across the Southeast, developers will continue to turn to their engineering partners to solve the many challenges that these developments bring about.


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