One could call Jim Irwin an accidental developer.
Today, at the young age of 47, Irwin is one of the most respected developers in Atlanta because of his commitment to creating spaces and places where people want to visit, live and work.
A motto for Irwin: “Let’s build a city I’d want to live in.”
Irwin was an English major and football player at Dartmouth College. Then he served as a legislative aide to the late U.S. Sen. Paul Coverdell (R-Ga.) and then U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas).
It was Gramm who told Irwin: “Don’t get stuck here. You need to move back home and get your business degree.”
Irwin returned to Atlanta to get an MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University, uncertain about his career goals.
Irwin had married Elisabeth. Both her parents were architects, Joe and Keren League, who met when they were working for the esteemed Atlanta architectural firm Jova/Daniels/Busbee. His in-laws suggested real estate might be a solid career move.
Keren then introduced Irwin to Chris Schoen, who was working with Barry Real Estate. Irwin began working with Hal Barry and Schoen while finishing up his business degree.
At the time, Schoen owned a baseball team in Fort Wayne, Ind., and he wanted to develop a stadium. He brought on Irwin to help shepherd the project.
While envisioning the development, Irwin suggested sinking the field rather than going vertical, keeping it at ground level. By sinking the field, the stadium could remain open and accessible to the community when baseball games weren’t taking place. An open running track became a popular neighborhood amenity.
“One of the reasons it was so powerful for me, I learned that if you can create connections with the nearby surroundings, you can have a greater impact on the community,” Irwin said of Parkview Field.
Irwin immediately realized he had a mind suited for development.
“I felt like I had found my purpose and calling when I worked on the Fort Wayne project,” Irwin said. “I found out years later I have a mild case of dyslexia. All of a sudden, I was reading architectural drawings, and it just made sense.”
The next stop for Irwin was with Green Street Properties, which had been acquired by Jamestown. They had just acquired a 16-acre property, the former Sears warehouse, and they were seeking someone with experience working on public-private developments.
Irwin said he did. That’s how he led the development of Ponce City Market (PCM), where he helped negotiate 48 different contracts and closed the deal in July 2011.
“Jamestown brought the vision of Chelsea Market to Atlanta,” Irwin said of the New York City project next to the High Line. “Chelsea Market was the model – a bustling urban structure in an historic building.”
The project became a reality when the city constructed Historic Fourth Ward Park with a retention pond to capture stormwater.
“We have assurances that the basement won’t flood anymore,” Irwin said. “The great lesson I took from Jamestown is that we could think more creatively about projects.”
In 2016, Irwin founded New City Properties, acquiring property along the Beltline. First, he developed 725 Ponce with a 370,000-office building next to a new Kroger.
The next project was creating a new city within a city. He started with a 1.1 million office building designed by the Seattle firm Olson Kundig that became the homebase for Mailchimp.
Then New York-based architect Morris Adjmi designed the Overline Residences, a 359-unit apartment building. Adjmi then designed a 196-room hotel, the FORTH, a 16-story glass tower with concrete crisscrosses.
When Irwin acquired the 12-acre site, he turned to the design firm of Perkins & Will and landscape architectural firm Kimley Horn to help plan the development. They took a different approach to most projects built in Atlanta.
“Let’s think about how people will move through this site — not cars, but people,” Irwin said. They ended up with seven natural plots and a central space to build a plaza. That cost a few extra million dollars, but Irwin and New City saw the value a plaza would bring to the $1 billion development.
“Atlanta has amazing public parks, but it has too few active plazas,” said Irwin, who believes quality design eventually will bring a financial return. Irwin also stands out because he loves meeting with neighborhood groups and involving the community in his projects.
Why don’t more developers think about quality design?
“Developers are the worst,” Irwin said half-seriously. He does understand and appreciate that developers must justify whether an investment in quality design will earn a return. Somehow, Irwin has made it work.
Irwin, 47, credits his appreciation for design to his mother, Anne Irwin, who owns the Anne Irwin Fine Art Gallery, whom he jokingly described as a “hippie artist.” She grew up in Portland, where he would visit to spend time with his grandparents. His mother helped him see the beauty of cities and public spaces, such as the Keller Fountain.
“Cities represented adventure,” Irwin said.
Irwin’s father, Tim Irwin, is a fourth-generation Atlantan who is now an industrial psychologist. “I was the most poked and prodded kid ever,” Jim Irwin admitted.
The combination of both parents helped nurture Irwin’s approach to development and love of cities.
“What we do will live in the world for decades,” Irwin said. “It’s a privilege and a duty to do it well. Yes, these projects are expensive, but good design is not that much more expensive.”
When asked about Atlanta, Irwin said its biggest strength is also its biggest weakness.
“Atlanta is the classic truism,” Irwin said. “Atlanta is a scrappy, hungry city that loves trying new things. It’s growing. We have a southern sense of hospitality, but we do things really fast. We look around and see this is a big city with a lot of traffic and a lot of people here. It’s living in this tension.”
Atlanta must show we “can do world-class things as a city,” said Irwin, who believes transit will happen on the Beltline. “The question is whether it’s going to be done well.”
Meanwhile, Irwin has three more pads to develop along the Beltline – one more office tower and two more apartment towers.
“I really like projects that have multiple phases,” Irwin said.
Now, New City is branching out to other Southern cities. In Nashville, it’s developing Neuhoff, a 1.2 million square-foot project anchored around the preservation of an historic meatpacking facility. In Chattanooga, its working on a 120-acre master-planned development centered around a minor league baseball stadium.
Irwin is continuing his quest to develop projects that stand out while blending in with the neighborhoods that surround them.
“If we can create something distinctive, it will bring return and be loved by the community,” Irwin said. “The most fun is showing what’s possible.”
Note to readers: This column on Jim Irwin was based on two separate events. Back in May, ULI-Atlanta invited me to moderate a conversation with Irwin at one of his office towers. Then, on July 24, Irwin and I sat down in his office, where he gave his views on development, design and Atlanta. On Aug. 13, Irwin will be on a developer’s panel for the Atlanta Design Roundtable, one of the activator-led initiatives of Atlanta Way 2.0.
