Work on a $64 million mixed-use project in the heart of downtown Duluth — a development complete with hundreds of apartments, a pair of restaurant spaces and nearly a dozen other storefronts — will begin next week, city officials announced Friday.
Proctor Square, an aging retail center, will be demolished to make room.
The project from Dunwoody-based developer Residential Group, LLC, dubbed "The Village in Duluth," will go up on eight acres centered at 3116 Buford Highway, on the southwest corner of that road's intersection with Duluth Highway. It will feature "a 375 multi-family rental unit complex with 11 retail/office store fronts with connected living space and two corner restaurant sites," Duluth spokeswoman Amanda Leiba said in a news release.
It will also include a parking deck, "tree-lined boulevard" and public art sites.
Construction is expected to take two years, but work will begin Tuesday — when demolition begins on the 1960s-era Proctor Square, which officials called the "first true shopping center in Duluth." Developers have also acquired three neighboring outparcels.
The project's start is just the latest step in a flurry of big-time development around downtown Duluth.
Down the street from the Proctor Square project, work is well underway on "The Block at Parson's Alley," a 30,000-square-foot restaurant and retail district surrounding the city's Village Green. Dreamland Bar-B-Que has already opened on the site near Lawrenceville and Main streets, as has O4W Pizza.
On the western side of Duluth Highway and Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, a 31-acre development known as Sugarloaf Marketplace will include 330 luxury apartments and 75,000 square feet of retail. A Sprouts Farmers Market opened on the site in May.
About the Author
