What's Coming to the Blocks Just South of City Springs, and What's Already Open There

On the bottom floor of a farmhouse built in 1869, people are ordering coffee from Summit Coffee. The Williams-Payne House at 6075 Sandy Springs Circle sits behind Heritage Green. For years it housed the Heritage Sandy Springs Museum. Since July, according to Appen Media's Sandy Springs Crier, it has been a café. Guests can carry a cup out to the spring, sit under one of the two gazebos or spread a blanket on the grass.

Right now the café is the only finished piece of a much bigger change. The land south of Mount Vernon Highway, across from City Hall and the Performing Arts Center, is being planned as one continuous extension of downtown. The same development team is behind the two large projects there. One is a mixed-use development set to open next summer. The other is the city's own 5.5 acres, which council voted on last month. Sandy Springs' downtown is getting a second half, and it will arrive in a set order over about the next three years.

The oldest building on the block opened first

The city approved the Summit Coffee lease on Oct. 21, 2025. The plan was adaptive reuse of the restored farmhouse, with indoor and outdoor seating and an event lawn. Rough Draft Atlanta reported a target opening around June 1, 2026, and the café opened in July. Summit's Sandy Springs page lists hours of 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, with quality coffee and seasonal drinks.

The ownership group has local ties. Co-owner Adam Cook told Appen Media that he and his 10 fellow owners wanted a Sandy Springs location after their Dunwoody café did well. Three of the five investing couples live in Sandy Springs. Cook said the team wanted a community hub where people could hold "fun celebrations and hard conversations."

The green around the house is already in regular use. The City Springs calendar for Heritage Amphitheatre lists Fit4Mom "Body Well" sessions on Nov. 14, 21 and 28 and on Dec. 5, 12 and 19. The class meets outdoors and moves to an indoor location when the weather is bad.

This matters for what comes next. Every plan for the land around the farmhouse treats the house and Heritage Green as fixed points. The bigger buildings are being designed around them.

Hillcrest is the next piece, and it opens next summer

Just west of Sandy Springs Circle, construction is well along at Hillcrest, 6150 Sandy Springs Circle. Third & Urban and Trammell Crow Company are building it. Rough Draft Atlanta describes a project of roughly 8 acres with 362 apartments, 30 for-rent townhomes and 19,000 square feet of retail, set to open in summer 2027. The site used to hold Sandy Springs United Methodist Church's Hitson Center, a grass field and a parking lot.

The first two retail tenants, announced Oct. 27, are both already known to North Atlanta:

• Salted Melon is a Charlotte-based café. It opened its first Atlanta-area location in Buckhead in February 2026. The Hillcrest shop will be its sixth overall, and it serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, with salads, bowls, sandwiches, smoothies, pastries and specialty coffee and tea, according to What Now Atlanta.
• Chastain Creamery is expanding from its ice cream shop at 164 West Wieuca Road NE in Buckhead, which opened at the start of this year. Before that shop opened, What Now Atlanta reported plans for more than 36 handcrafted flavors, dairy-free and sugar-free options, and coffee.

Salted Melon founder Thomas Coker said his reasons for choosing the site in the release What Now Atlanta quoted:

"We chose Hillcrest for its convenient location, emphasis on patio-heavy retail spaces and the city's vision for a pedestrian-friendly downtown."

More tenants are likely. Hank Farmer, a partner at Third & Urban, told Rough Draft Atlanta the team is "in active negotiations with several more tenants." Scott Kirchhoff, a principal with Trammell Crow in Atlanta, said the site appealed because it sits close to City Springs and benefits from the placemaking the city has built there.

The church that sold the land is planning to move across the road

Hillcrest also sets off a smaller change nearby. Sandy Springs United Methodist Church sold the Hillcrest site to pay for improvements. It is now asking for a conditional use permit to build a new sanctuary on the north side of Mount Vernon Highway, with on-site parking and landscaping.

The city's zoning case record lists the application as case U-26-8, a place of worship at 86 Mount Vernon Hwy NE. The case held community meetings on Aug. 24 and Oct. 8. It goes to the Planning Commission on Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 6 p.m., and then to City Council on Tuesday, Dec. 15, at 6 p.m. Those two hearings are the next public dates connected to this part of downtown.

City Springs 2.0 fills in the rest, with the same team

The last piece belongs to the city. On Oct. 20, the Sandy Springs City Council voted unanimously to move ahead with negotiations to sell 5.5 acres of city property just south of Mount Vernon Highway for City Springs 2.0. The city picked Trammell Crow Company, through its residential arm High Street Residential, as master developer. Third & Urban, DSM Real Estate Partners and Hedgewood Homes are assisting, according to Rough Draft Atlanta and the city's announcement.

Trammell Crow and Third & Urban are already building Hillcrest. That means the partners responsible for the street-level shops at Hillcrest are also planning the city's parcels next door. The concept for those parcels includes:

1. An apartment building with ground-floor retail, facing City Hall across Mount Vernon Highway
2. A boutique hotel
3. A 28-home single-family subdivision by Hedgewood Homes, next to Heritage Green and the Williams-Payne House

The change drivers will feel most is on Bluestone Road. Council is considering permanently closing the stretch between Mount Vernon Highway and Hilderbrand Drive. This is still a proposal and has not been adopted. Anyone who uses that stretch as a shortcut to Hilderbrand will want to follow the rezoning.

The city has tried this before. Sandy Springs picked a master developer for this expansion after the 2022 master plan, and that effort with Regent Partners and Morris & Fellows fizzled in 2024. In the spring of this year, council decided economic conditions were good enough to bring the project back to market, and the city started a new solicitation in early June.

When each piece arrives

City economic development director Chris Burnett gave Rough Draft Atlanta the clearest schedule so far. Combined with the Hillcrest and church dates, the south side of Mount Vernon Highway is expected to fill in like this:

• Now: Summit Coffee is open daily in the Williams-Payne House, and Fit4Mom sessions continue at Heritage Amphitheatre through Dec. 19.
• Nov. 18 and Dec. 15: The Planning Commission and then City Council take up the church's sanctuary application.
• This winter: The city pursues rezoning for City Springs 2.0 and keeps negotiating the sale. Council members said the rezonings are when the public will get to weigh in.
• Summer 2027: Hillcrest opens with Salted Melon and Chastain Creamery. The developers are also expected to close on the City Springs 2.0 land around then, pending rezoning.
• Fall 2027 at the earliest: Site work could begin on City Springs 2.0 once permits are issued.
• Third to fourth quarter of 2029: Burnett said construction on parcels A and B should take about 24 months, putting delivery and "conceptually a ribbon-cutting" in late 2029.
• 2030: Burnett said the whole project "should be culminated and complete" by then.

Council Member Andrew Chinsky said once the vote was public, "I look forward to hearing more input from the public on the project … we can always make this better." The city says it will develop the design, financial and contract details as the project moves forward.

If you're thinking about how a new downtown block could change daily life on your street, or what it could mean for a home near Sandy Springs Circle, Cathy LaMon and the team will gladly talk it over and follow the hearings this winter with you. Let's Connect.