Japanese Construction Capital Underwrote a Sandy Springs Ground-Up

Kennedy Wilson and Shimizu Corporation are developing Caldwell, a 382-unit, five-story community at 35 Glenlake Parkway NE in Sandy Springs, Georgia. The development is approximately $139 million, with first residents expected in 2028. New South Construction is general contractor; Dynamik Design is architect.

That is $363,874 per unit — CRE360 arithmetic. Units average 937 square feet, putting net rentable area at 357,934 square feet and the basis at $388.34 per square foot. Density runs 55.4 units per acre across the 6.9-acre site, with more than 17,500 square feet of indoor and outdoor amenity space, or 45.8 square feet per unit.

The site previously held a UPS office building, acquired by Kennedy Wilson in late 2025, with demolition beginning this summer. This is Kennedy Wilson's first ground-up multifamily development in Georgia and its first partnership with Shimizu.

Two things are happening on these 6.9 acres. An obsolete suburban office building is coming down, and the replacement is being funded by one of Japan's largest general contractors rather than by a US value-add fund.

Shimizu is a builder deploying balance sheet, not a fund deploying a return target against a defined exit. That distinction matters at $363,874 per unit in suburban Atlanta, because it changes who is willing to hold through a 2028 delivery into an unknown rent environment. Kennedy Wilson typically enters new markets by acquisition; entering Georgia by shovel, with a partner whose cost of capital is not marked to a US fund hurdle, is a specific answer to a specific problem — merchant equity is not clearing.

Implications: watch the composition of development equity, not just its volume. Corporate and strategic balance sheets — contractors, insurers, foreign operating companies — are filling the gap left by closed-end funds, and they underwrite duration differently. If your competitive set is being built by capital that does not need a five-year exit, your own hold assumptions are the ones that need testing.

Flag: the joint venture equity split and Shimizu's check size were not disclosed.