The building at 250 Piedmont Avenue has served as a home to many businesses in its lifetime.
One of its newest owners, David Cochran, president and CEO of Paces Properties, has a specific vision for the building’s identity moving forward: home to millennials.
This September, the building will officially take on its new identity as ‘The Office’ while paying homage to its past.
“The name was something we really worked hard on getting right and in my mind, we nailed it,” Cochran said. “We felt a true sense of reverence for what the past was. We didn’t want to name it some innocuous, meaningless name that was just a snazzy adjective…”
The Office now consists of 327 one- or two-bedroom unfurnished apartments. All units feature 12-foot high concrete ceilings, exposed ductwork, wireless entertainment centers with USB wall ports and below counter wine coolers. Leases for one-bedrooms start at about $1,350 a month, utilities excluded.
The $55 million renovation/conversion project to turn the vacant office building into The Office was launched with a target audience in mind: the millennial.
The Office co-owner Ed Kobel, president and COO of DeBartolo Development, said his company had committed to redeveloping the building when Coca-Cola announced it planned to relocate about 2,000 information technology workers from Cobb County to downtown Atlanta.
“That’s exactly what we thought was going to start happening here in Atlanta, and it has,” Kobel said. “That millennial group really wants to be in that live, work, play environment. They want to be downtown. They want to walk, they’re sensitive to environmental concerns and this is the perfect solution for that.”
The Office’s amenities include: 24-hour gym, gaming lounge, iMac stations, dry cleaning concierge, bike storage, bike repair shop, car charging stations and soundproof recording pods to mix, record and practice music.
The building was renovated with green building materials, is equipped with an energy efficient mechanical system and low emission windows – just a few more features added with the millennial in mind.
“What we’re seeing across the nation is the fact not only the millennials want to live and work and play downtown but also people that are 50 and over are really moving out of suburbia,” Kobel said.
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