With the Mall of Georgia open and drawing visitors by the thousands, developer Ben Carter has turned his attention back to Buckhead.

Ben Carter Properties and its partners will begin construction on an office building and condominium near the intersection of Northside Parkway and West Paces Ferry Road this fall. They plan to finish it in October 2000.

The project, Piazza at Paces, will include The Forum, a nine-story, 225,000-square-foot office building, and The Borghese, a 12-story, 64-unit condominium with two penthouses.

The project has been designed in line with new urbanism guidelines that call for the creation of a live-work-walk community. Post Properties Inc. invoked new urbanism at its Riverside by Post development on Northside, and Carter will, too.

"With the success of Riverside, we felt a lot braver about the ability to do a similar style project," Carter said.

Carter and partner Ronus Inc. of Atlanta bought the 17 acres at 3290 Northside (the former home of American Security Group) for $19 million in 1998 and attempted to have the tract rezoned to allow for a 1.5 million-square-foot, mixed-use development.

Neighborhood opposition led to the denial of the rezoning request, and Carter and Ronus redesigned the project, which initially was called Paces Plaza. The original plan had a large retail component.

Plans now call for much less development than zoning permits. The site is zoned for office and industrial use, which includes allowances for accessory retail space.

Neighborhood Planning Unit A Chairman Seymour Liebmann said he had not seen Carter's new plans and could not comment on them. However, he conceded that Carter has what he needs to go ahead. "We're not happy with it, but it's zoned that way, and he's entitled to develop it the way it's zoned," Liebmann said.

Ronus, a subsidiary controlled by Dutch businessman Ronald deWaal, is the primary investor in both the office building and condo at Piazza, which benefits the overall project, President Robert L. Anderson said.

"You have a common investor in the whole [project]," he said. "It ensures everyone that you're going to have the same quality."

Piazza at Paces offered Ronus a good business opportunity, said deWaal, whose company has partnered with Ben Carter Properties in the development of four projects since 1994.

"Looking at the location and at what we're doing, we're in a very good position," he said. "I'm confident that we will be successful in leasing the project."

CNM Associates, a partnership between Ben Carter Properties and Ronus, will lease space in the Forum, which will average about $28 a square foot.

Ready for Renaissance

Paisley Boney IV, president of CNM and Ben Carter Properties, said the typical tenant probably will be a small professional services firm whose principals live near Piazza at Paces and are tired of Buckhead traffic. "A lot of people would prefer to be close to their house," he said.

Carter and Ronus created a development reminiscent of the Italian Renaissance and reflective of the architecture of Neel Reid and Philip Shutze. Cooper Carry Inc. designed the Forum, and William T. Baker designed the Borghese. Carter said the buildings should fit in well with the large residential estates in nearby neighborhoods.

The buildings, with their limestone base and beige-brick exterior, will be "very reminiscent of the commercial buildings" Reid designed.

Renting for $5,000

Carter said he hopes residents of the tony Northside Parkway neighborhoods adjacent to Piazza at Paces will appreciate the development. "What the neighborhood really wanted was the project to be built with the current zoning," he said.

The office building and condo will be built simultaneously with an adjacent apartment community.

The Carter and Ronus partnership sold five of the 17 acres to Gables Residential Trust, which will begin site work for a 128-unit apartment community in two weeks, Gables Vice President Joe Wilber said.

Gables Plaza will be the real estate investment trust's most upscale development ever, with apartments renting for $1,000 to $5,000 a month and townhomes for $4,000 to $6,000 a month.

Southeast Capital Partners Inc. will develop the condominiums. Southeast Capital principal Jay T. Clark said his company became involved because of the high standards of the project and the opportunity to develop a condo in a neighborhood surrounding.

"We're the meat of the sandwich," he said of the location. "We've got Buckhead on the east and Vinings on the west."

Piazza at Paces will feature a landscaped plaza that will help promote a sense of community at the project. It also will be connected to area shopping by sidewalks.

"A lot of people talk about new urbanism, but what you're really creating is a people place," Carter said.