The first Buckhead location of Switchyards is headed for the Piedmont Center.
The Atlanta-based work club will occupy just over 5,000 square feet at the 14-building office campus, marking the first slate of collaborative, coworking-style spaces to open at the Piedmont Center.
The announcement of the Switchyards opening is the next step forward for The Ardent Cos.’s multiyear revitalization of the 45-acre Buckhead campus, which includes 2.2 million square feet of commercial office space. It follows the addition of spec suites to the Piedmont Center in an effort to expand flexible office options for future and existing tenants.
Founded in 2016, Switchyards is a members-only workspace operating in four neighborhoods throughout Atlanta: Cabbagetown, the Westside, downtown and Decatur. They’re open, communal spaces anchored by coffee shops and quiet “heads down library” areas. For $50 a month, members have access to all four locations.
The Piedmont Center space, which spans the ground floor of Building 3, is the first of Switchyards locations to open directly in an office campus. It’s also the first to have an expansive courtyard — existing locations have outdoor tables, but the Buckhead location opens out into a “football field of a front yard,” said Switchyards founder Michael Tavani — and a wealth of accessible parking. It’s a setting conducive “to the way people work today,” said Ardent Managing Director Mike Guynn — where outdoor spaces have quickly become value-added amenities.
“I’ve always wanted a big landlord to utilize Switchyards in this way, which is putting Switchyards in the middle of a big development where we become this third place, this hotel lobby of a big development,” Tavani said.
The Buckhead location is the next to follow Switchyards’ December launch in Decatur. At a higher membership price of $100, it was the first location to implement Switchyards’ new 24-hour silent library model.
The location will open on February 22.