Work is scheduled to resume on the International Village in Chamblee in April, and principal investor Eike Jordan said Atlanta’s international community has shown strong interest in the project by reserving space for offices and stores.
The International Village is a 30-acre development that is to house consular offices, ethnic restaurants and retail stores, binational chambers of commerce, a museum and a performing arts center.
In April, workers will continue clearing the site and installing the necessary infrastructure after a temporary delay in progress. Construction on the first buildings is expected to begin in August, according to Chuck Schmandt, a major investor in the project.
“The total project is 500,000 square feet, and we already have 200,000 square feet reserved with letters of intent. This shows strong interest,” Mr. Jordan told GlobalAtlanta.
“There is excitement from every target group we talk to. This is reflected in the long list of letters of intent of future tenants,” said the Germany-born businessman who became the village’s principal investor at the end of January.
The area will reflect the wide diversity of Atlanta’s international community, he added.
“This is one of the very few prime pieces of land inside perimeter left for a major project like this. Atlanta is ripe for development with a broad international focus, not just bilateral Chinese or Latin or Korean villages. This will have broad diversity with European and Asian aspects,” Mr. Jordan said.
The project should take about 30 months to complete, he said. The plan is to fund future buildings with proceeds from land sales, but the effort will likely need more equity capital, which Mr. Jordan believes is available.
“We are seeing strong interest from European investors, so this should be no problem,” he said.
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International Village: Eike Jordan

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