Despite a soaring office vacancy rate of 23.3% and a total 3.7 million sf of unoccupied space in the Midtown submarket, according to Colliers Cauble & Co., Dewberry Capital plans to break ground this year on Two Peachtree Pointe, a spec-built, 19-story, 292,000-sf tower at Peachtree and West Peachtree streets. It will be situated behind Dewberry's seven-story, One Peachtree Pointe office building.

Downtown and Midtown brokers in a position to know tell GlobeSt.com Two Peachtree Pointe will have 14,500 sf of ground-floor retail, six parking levels and 12 floors of office space above the parking. The estimated cost of the project is $50 million. Area construction industry estimators tell GlobeSt.com the office component alone can't be built for less than $150 per sf.

Although Dewberry has no anchor tenant lined up for his newest venture, area brokers intimate with Dewberry Capital's assets tell GlobeSt.com the developer could place his newest acquired company, Hilex Poly Co., into Two Peachtree Pointe if he had to. Dewberry and an investor consortium recently paid $119 million to buy the $200-million plastic grocery sack division of Sonoco Products Inc. of Hartsville, SC, local retail sources in a position to know tell GlobeSt.com.