West Midtown project lands a big furniture showroom

The company is relocating its Atlanta showroom from Collier Road. OFS couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Credit: cou

Credit: cou

Westside Paper is a 15-acre project across from the King Plow Arts Center that repurposed a large warehouse once home to Atlanta Paper Co. It sits along a spur trail that links to the Atlanta Beltline.

Originally envisioned as creative office space, Westside Paper opened in 2022 after the pandemic upended the office market. Lacking tenant interest, the team soon shifted to targeting retailers and wellness concepts.

That strategy seems to have paid off.

Today, Westside Paper is about 60% occupied with retail tenants, with total occupancy around 85%, said Chris Faussemagne, partner at Westbridge, which developed the project with investment partner FCP.

“In the world of real estate, you have to learn to be flexible,” Faussemagne said. “We set out to build a project that was focused on office space, and what we recognized was there was not a lot of demand and there was a massive oversupply.”

For example, another West Midtown office building, 1050 Brickworks, recently went back to the bank after the project sat empty for more than 18 months.

Among top metro Atlanta office markets, West Midtown not only has the highest average asking rents but also the highest percentage of available space, according to second-quarter data from real estate services firm CBRE.

Meanwhile, Westside Paper gained traction with large retailers, including Home Depot-owned Construction Resources, which opened a flagship showroom and is now building out a 23,000-square-foot headquarters office.

The project also is home to fitness concept Carbon Performance and racquet sports club Padel Haus, which plans to enclose its six-court facility for year-round play.

Other retail tenants include: Ancestral Bottle Shop & Market, Mexican restaurant El Santo Gallo, brunch spot Pancake Social, Dumpling Factory and event venue The Dogwood.

And Westside Paper will soon welcome Omma, a new cocktail bar from the team behind MidCity in Midtown.

The project in May announced some momentum with office tenants, including a 33,000-square-foot lease with packaging automation company Packsize and a 10,000-square-foot lease with technology company Disguise.

“Converting it to more of a retail experience really allowed the project to have the success that it’s having today,” Faussemagne said.