ALPHARETTA
Key attractions Upscale seafood house Lapeer and a downtown location of homegrown Jekyll Brewing draw crowds. A 9,000-square-foot, speakeasy-inspired entertainment hub called Roaring Social is expected to join the mix soon at the forthcoming Hamilton Hotel. Sections of the planned BeltLine-style Alpha Loop have begun to open, including a link from downtown to Avalon, located a mile east.
Housing types Options within a short walk of Alpharetta’s core are dominated by newer construction, be it modern-leaning townhouses or relatively dense single-family clusters.
Cost of living Searching for a low-cost suburban alternative? You might need to keep looking. One-bedroom rents at the aforementioned apartments, Amorance, clock in at $1,800 for about 700 square feet. Larger condos have fetched well over $800,000—and townhomes more than $1 million—in the past year.
Who lives here? Alpharetta’s been a particular hit lately with Gen Xers moving from larger, denser cities, often for jobs in the city’s blossoming tech sector. A recent survey showed just 2 percent of Alpharettans were born there.
You might be surprised Prior to the turn of the century when Alpharetta city leaders began assembling rundown buildings and parking lots to create a town center, no significant projects had been developed here for almost 30 years.
Charm-o-meter Rating 8. Hats off to architects and developers, led by Atlanta-based Morris & Fellows, for devising a ground-up new section of downtown that invites activity while feeling mostly organic.
