Images: Angular Buckhead Village tower reaches max height Josh Green Mon, 03/31/2025 - 13:32 Two years after demolition began on site, a project that’s adding heft and nearly 500 new living options to Buckhead Village’s skyline is entering the homestretch of construction. 

More than half a decade in the making, the 22-story structure at 340 East Paces Ferry Road has fully topped out, and the installation of blue-tinted exterior glass is also nearing completion. 

The project by Chicago-based CA Ventures has remade a full corner immediately west of the Kimpton Sylvan hotel at the corner of East Paces Ferry Road and Grandview Avenue, about a block northeast of the Buckhead Village retail and dining district.

Plans call for 483 luxury apartments, with amenities placed on the 10th floor and a valet-style drop-off area for residents below. 

Various angles of the building's upper floors over East Paces Ferry Road. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

According to co-developer Mitsui Fudosan America**—**also a partner in Midtown’s new Loria building—the Buckhead project will total 406,600 square feet overall, with nearly 17,000 square feet of retail at the base.

CA Ventures initially brought blueprints before Buckhead design review committees in 2018 for an upscale complex at the northeast corner of East Paces Ferry Road and Grandview Avenue, before years of delays ensued. 

The building has topped out at 225 feet, the maximum height allowed in the village.

How future retail spaces are coming together along East Paces Ferry Road. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

The Buckhead Village building today, looking north from Pharr Road. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Elsewhere in Atlanta, the company has completed two towers in Midtown, the 903 Peachtree luxury apartments and HERE Atlanta student housing building.

One unique facet of the East Paces Ferry Road project will be more than 100 parking spaces for electric vehicles in the building, including some specially designed and reserved for Tesla models, according to the project’s designers, Atlanta architecture firm Niles Bolton Associates.

No completion date for the building has been specified. 

The tower's planned retail component along East Paces Ferry Road. Niles Bolton Associates

The East Paces Ferry Road venture isn’t the only high-rise residential idea developers have hatched nearby in recent years. 

Directly across East Paces Ferry Road, another company based in greater Chicago, Harbor Bay Ventures, advanced plans in 2023 for a 20-story mixed-use tower that would be partially constructed of mass timber. That fenced-off property is still being used as surface parking, with no signs of active construction. That’s also the case with another nearby high-rise proposal along Pharr Road. 

Elsewhere, however, yet another tower in the pipeline near Buckhead Village—a project with for-sale condos now coined “Veridian Buckhead”—is showing signs of life, with a new sales center in the works. 

In the gallery above, find updated construction pics and more context for the 340 East Paces Ferry Road project. 

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Prior to construction, the corner in question shown in relation to Jamestown's Buckhead Village district and other landmarks. Google Maps

The corner properties in question, as seen in January 2023 along East Paces Ferry Road, prior to demolition. Google Maps

The topped-out 340 East Paces Ferry Road project's stance today from the south, along Grandview Avenue. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Majority of blue-tinted exterior glass has been installed along the tower's south facade. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

How future retail spaces are coming together along East Paces Ferry Road. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Various angles of the building's upper floors over East Paces Ferry Road. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

The project's eastern face overlooking the Kimpton Sylvan Atlanta-Buckhead hotel at right. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

The Buckhead Village building today, looking north from Pharr Road. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

The tower's planned retail component along East Paces Ferry Road. Niles Bolton Associates

View along Grandview Avenue, with Peachtree Road at left. Submitted/YouTube

How the building's expected to rise next to the Kimpton Sylvan hotel, at right. Submitted/YouTube

Subtitle Mixed-use East Paces Ferry Road project nears finish at top height allowed in area

Neighborhood Buckhead

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From the Atlanta Tribune:

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The executive order is chillingly titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” It declares that the Smithsonian, once a symbol of “American excellence,” has become tainted by narratives that portray “American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.” By Stacy M. Brown Even the most cynical observers knew this day […]

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MARTA sheds new light on safer, tech-enabled railcar fleet Josh Green Mon, 03/31/2025 - 08:14 Anyone with a passing interest in Atlanta transit has probably seen the state-of-the-art aesthetics of MARTA’s new railcar fleet. But did you know each train will be implanted with microphones, placed strategically to pick up sudden, loud noises and alert operators?

MARTA shares that factoid and others about its next-generation CQ400 trains as part of its second monthly installment of Behind the Ride series.

Like accessibility, safety will be paramount for the new railcar fleet, according to MARTA. 

Following a high-profile January unveiling at State of MARTA 2025, the CQ400 trains are undergoing final testing as MARTA formulates plans to introduce them to the public. They will mark “a significant step forward in transit modernization,” per the agency’s latest column. 

One of the new CQ400 railcars on MARTA's tracks. Courtesy of MARTA

Connie Krisak, MARTA’s senior director of rail vehicle procurement, relays that each detail of the new trains was designed with functionality and the rider experience in mind, from placement of emergency call buttons to seating arrangements. 

MARTA credits Krisak with pushing seasoned railcar manufacturer Stadler US Inc. to deliver “groundbreaking” railcars to Atlanta—ones with designs influenced by thousands of rider surveys collected during the COVID-19 pandemic, regarding every aspect from digital signage to seat positions to lighting.

Krisak describes the resulting new interiors as “comfortable and intuitive,” encased with “bold MARTA branding” on the exteriors, all meant to serve Atlantans for decades to come. 

Beyond the microphones dotted around railcars, other safety upgrades will include LED lighting and enhanced Communications-Based Train Controlcapabilities, per MARTA. 

In terms of functionality, the new CQ400 trains will each be a four-car set with open gangways in between, allowing MARTA riders to pass between more than one car at once. That will make inter-car movement for passengers and security staff easier. 

Inside the more open and digitized new CQ400 trains bound for MARTA's system. Courtesy of MARTA

Charging stations, digital maps, computerized service information, and forward and inward-facing seats are also included. One goal for MARTA is to provide more room for bikes, strollers, luggage, and people in wheelchairs, officials have said.  

According to MARTA, the front exterior of each railcar will have a lighted “smile” in either red, gold, blue, or green that clearly denotes the color of each approaching rail line.

Testing on the first two Stadler vehicles to arrive in Atlanta in January is expected to take roughly a year. (They’re the first models of their kind to operate in the U.S., making the testing phase time-consuming but critical, MARTA officials previously told Urbanize Atlanta.) However, MARTA heads have said additional trains are en route that don’t require such a long testing period. 

That means, should all go as planned, the first new MARTA train will go into revenue service in July, the transit agency said in January.

How the new MARTA railcars' open gangway designs allow for passenger travel throughout the train. Courtesy of MARTA

MARTA entered a contract in 2019 to purchase $646 million worth of modernized new railcars from Stadler—funded via MARTA’s capital improvement program—marking the largest procurement deal ever for both the veteran train builder and transit agency. 

MARTA launched an initiative in 2021 called “Your Ride, You Decide” that let people vote on four exterior options for the new fleet. (The winning design is meant to evoke speed, officials have said.) Stadler continues to build out the fleet to MARTA’s specifications in Salt Lake City. 

Currently, many of MARTA’s 300 railcars date to the agency’s 1970s beginnings and are prone to breakdowns, agency leaders have said.

A juxtaposition of MARTA's first CQ400 train to be operational on tracks (left) and a current railcar. Courtesy of MARTA

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One of the new CQ400 railcars on MARTA's tracks. Courtesy of MARTA

Inside the more open and digitized new CQ400 trains bound for MARTA's system. Courtesy of MARTA

A juxtaposition of MARTA's first CQ400 train to be operational on tracks (left) and a current railcar. Courtesy of MARTA

How the new MARTA railcars' open gangway designs allow for passenger travel throughout the train. Courtesy of MARTA

Courtesy of MARTA

The front exteriors of railcars will have a lighted “smile” in either red, gold, blue, or green that denotes the color of each approaching rail line, per MARTA. Courtesy of MARTA

Subtitle Atlanta transit system's CQ400 trains are undergoing final testing

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