If development activity is indicative of an area's potential, the patchy stretch of Piedmont Road between Midtown and Buckhead is a diamond in the rough. The Atlanta Business Chronicle tabulates the bevy of retail and residential projects — a potential "development boom" — planned on or near the thoroughfare, which for now is an amalgam of mixed-use development, big-box stores, vacant lots and adult entertainment options. The future here could look vastly different: More than 1,000 apartment units, new stores that could still include a (gasp) Walmart Supercenter and even a luxe bowling alley are in the works.

So what's the allure? As the newspaper reports, developers lust for the area's access to employment centers, its comparatively low land costs and access to transit options like MARTA, Ga. Highway 400, Interstate 85 and (eventually) the Atlanta Beltline and PATH400 Trail.

Thus, development news abounds: AMLI is trying to close a deal to build 375 apartment units just south of the company's AMLI Lindbergh project; at Cheshire Bridge and Piedmont, a 300-unit apartment project by Dallas-based Mill Creek Residential is planned; and Charleston, S.C.-based Greystar could start building a 359-unit project this fall on six acres behind the Lindbergh Plaza shopping center, home to Best Buy and other stores, the newspaper reports. And developer Jeff Fuqua is reportedly still eyeing the area for a Walmart, having shifted his focus to an Intown Suites Extended Stay site on Piedmont Circle in the wake of community outcries against the project on a nearby site.

About the bowling alley: The newspaper reports Justin Amick, son of Atlanta restaurateur Bob Amick of Concentrics fame, is planning a modern, upscale indoor sports emporium called "The Painted Pin" in the Miami Circle antique and design district. Offerings would include 20 bowling lanes, bocce ball courts, shuffleboard and ping-pong. Hey, this influx of apartment dwellers will need a place to play, right?



[Above: Rendering of the completed Lindbergh Vista on Piedmont Road. Photo: Terminal Station]

· Aging stretch of Piedmont Road could boom [Atlanta Business Chronicle]

· New Plan For Lindbergh Walmart Site: Gobs Of Apartments [Curbed Atlanta]