What's Going Here? - Woodstock & Canton

The demolition request public notice signs are up all over the place around the old Vickers Auto Repair shop and the surrounding buildings.  King Lowry Ventures/Miller Lowry is the name on the petition requests and they are looking to consolidate four parcels at the corner of Woodstock Rd and Canton St totaling roughly 1.75 acres.  There hasn't been much detail released about what will go here so I'm going to speculate.

This is a prime parcel at the lesser developed end of Canton Street.  The pricetag to assemble these four lots was likely in the $2M+ ballpark given the $1.4M list price for the Vickers property.  Given that pricetag, this is going to need to be multi-story and with the trend toward mixed-use development taking hold in North Fulton, I definitely see this development headed that way.

I'm predecting some residential, retail and office in this one and it's going to need to be higher end development to make it in this part of town.  Miller Lowry has developed in Historic Roswell before.  You're probably familiar with this development just to the south of this new project.

I've always liked this building and the residential units upstairs with one exception.  That is the fact that it sits just a little too far back from the street.  It should be closer up to the street to help create the type of environment that is present on the south end of Canton Street.  I'm definitely hoping that the new development goes for a smaller setback.  

Another development that Miller Lowry has in the pipeline is at 1075 Canton St which is the old blacksmith property.  This one will tear down the shed behind the historic home and replace it with four townhomes and the plan is to rehab the house that fronts Canton St into (I'm guessing here) a restaurant space.  Here's the rendering that has been filed with the city for that development.

The townhomes look strickingly similar to the Sweet building just up the street.  I think this could be a solid addition to Canton Street but we need to be careful that all Miller Lowry projects don't look the same.  We don't want monotony on our most important street.

That said, I'm guessing that what we get at the corner of Woodstock and Canton Street has a similar feel and tops off at 3 or 4 stories with retail/restaurant on the main floor and some residential and office on the upper floors.  Also, there is plenty of land so don't rule out the possibility that additional buildings go behind the one that will front Canton and Woodstock.

Comments

[TD]

Michael, I am guessing townhomes, and speaking of which what ever happened to the prososed tow homes at azalea proposed earlier this year ??

[Michael D Hadden]

The townhomes on Azalea died unfortunately and now it looks like that lot will be divided up into 7 single family lots what will not add any sidewalk connectivity down to the river from the streets above. From what I can tell.. it's a net loss for Roswell.

[Observer]

Currently proposed is a 55’ tall building which would house various businesses and 69 apartments or condos. There will be a two level underground parking garage for tenants. The developer is showing a 3’ set back instead of the required 40’ set back.
The Roswell transportation department has recommended a new road be cut from Woodstock to Thompson Place - there is a sign up now if you want to know where this is. It is three feet past (west) the property lines of 52 and 54 Woodstock and along the houses on Thompson Place (10’ away from property lines).

[Tom Walker]

06/17/15 latest King Lowry proposal is 4+ stories and 80 condos and about 800 auto increase at Canton and Woodstock. They want to exceed UDC height limits and decrease buffer space between homes.

In my opinion this structure will be far too large and take away from the 'Old Town' ambience. Also, hard to believe anyone would propose increasing traffic in this part of Roswell.