No one wants to work in this DeKalb office. But maybe they’ll live here.

Credit: Courtesy of Crescent Communities

Credit: Courtesy of Crescent Communities

The developer said the building might have outlived its usefulness as competitive office space. But the real estate beneath it still carries a lot of potential, mirroring many other struggling suburban office buildings around Atlanta that could become compelling sites for a residential redo.

“They were placed there by design,” Eric Liebendorfer, a managing director at Crescent, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “There is access to infrastructure, employment, retail and residential, so they’re often very well located.”

Metro Atlanta has grappled with a glut of empty and unwanted office space since the COVID-19 pandemic introduced much of the corporate world to remote work. The region ended 2025 with 31.5% of all office square footage on the market, according to real estate services firm CBRE.

Much of that vacancy is concentrated in older buildings or those stuck in less desirable locations, lacking walkability or access to shops and restaurants. Tucker Exchange at 2059 Northlake Pkwy is a textbook example, and its struggles have been known for years.

By 2022, the five-story building only had one tenant, Bank of America, which occupied only about a fifth of its 248,000 square feet of rentable workspace. Parkside Partners sold it to AHS Residential as part of a plan to transform the 13-acre site into more than 400 apartments.

AHS, which later rebranded to Resia, aimed to convert the existing building into residences alongside building three new mixed-use buildings. The Tucker City Council approved its rezoning request four years ago and cleared the project for construction, but it fizzled out before starting.

Credit: Courtesy of City of Tucker

Credit: Courtesy of City of Tucker

Resia sold it Jan. 22 to Crescent Communities at a 42% discount from the last time the property changed hands, according to DeKalb County records.

“The sale of the Tucker Exchange property was a strategic portfolio decision by Resia,” a company spokesperson said. “We continually evaluate our assets to ensure alignment with our long-term business objectives.”

Liebendorfer said it’s a noble, but expensive and challenging, prospect to convert a suburban office building into apartments. Buildings like Tucker Exchange, which was built in 1975, often lack the right type of floor plates and interior layouts needed to make appealing apartments.

It’s why Crescent Communities, and a growing number of developers around metro Atlanta, are opting to wipe the slate clean and start over.

“The existing building (typically) sits dead center of the site, so it really cannibalizes the rest of the opportunity unless you scrape it,” Liebendorfer said.

For example, Third & Urban plans to redevelop the 32-acre Corporate Square office park in Brookhaven into a mixed-use campus with thousands of residences, a hotel, new shops and medical office space. Portman Holdings is tearing down an office building near Old Milton Parkway in Alpharetta to make way for new mixed-use development. And a former State Farm office campus in Johns Creek was demolished by Toro Development to make way for one of the Northside’s largest future live-work-play districts called Medley.

Credit: Special

Credit: Special

Alan Wexler, CEO of real estate information firm DataBank, said those projects and Crescent Communities’ plan for Tucker represent a broader trend in the Atlanta area of office-to-residential projects. But he said not every office project is destined for the same fate, because many could see revivals as office demand rebounds or with renovations under new ownership.

“It doesn’t mean that the whole market is going to be doing what this sale is doing,” he said. “But it does represent a certain percentage of (office sales) that are going to be changing their purpose.”

Crescent Communities’ apartment project is called Render Tucker, and Liebendorfer expects it to open in late summer 2027. It will consist of a half-dozen four-story apartment buildings, a standalone clubhouse with amenities and a walking trail that will connect to the city’s proposed Tucker-Northlake trail.

Credit: Courtesy of Crescent Communities

Credit: Courtesy of Crescent Communities

Chuo Nittochi Group is the project’s equity partner and Santander Bank is providing a $50 million loan, according to Databank.

Tucker Mayor Anne Lerner said she’s excited for new life to come to the long-dormant property, “which will bring new energy and opportunity to our community.”

Crescent last week also became one of the first developers to announce a new office project in the Atlanta area. The firm on Friday said it is picking up a plan set in motion several years ago to build 300 apartments and a 21-story office tower on land owned by the Church of Wieuca in Buckhead.