Chris Faussemagne is a connector — of people, places and the past to the present. As a partner at Third & Urban, he helps to guide the firm’s focus on developing and managing adaptive reuse and urban infill projects as well as consulting on larger regional projects for institutional clients.

As a native Atlantan, he is a neighbor first and foremost. Faussemagne has a vested interest in the city’s history as much as its future. Not only does he have a hand in shaping some of the city’s favorite places for locals and visitors alike, he approaches each project with a friendly handshake.

Bridging the Gap

Growing up in Atlanta, Faussemagne attended the Westminster Schools then Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. After graduation, he returned home to work as a project manager with the Winter Group of Companies, where he got his first entry into adaptive reuse. A love of history combined with a curiosity for real estate led to his interest in historic tax credit projects.

“My father was involved in the hospitality world and I was always intrigued by the real estate side of that,” Faussemagne said. “I love the development process, especially for adaptive reuse. It’s a multidisciplinary approach to solving problems. For me, it’s about seeing something that isn’t being used to its highest or best use and thinking, ‘That has potential.’ It’s a way to be creative and change how a building or a structure acts.”

In 2000, he followed that passion to the Weaver & Woodbery Company, where he was involved with the rehabilitation of the Puritan Mill factory site in West Midtown. Then in 2005, Faussemagne formed White Provision Development Co. to acquire and develop the historic buildings at three of the four corners of the 14th Street and Howell Mill Road intersection — now home to the 335,000-square-foot, mixed-use development known as the Westside Provisions District (WSPD).

“That was really the first time a creative project in Atlanta was developed at an institutional size,” he said. By partnering with Jamestown Properties and adjacent property owners, WSPD became a catalyst for new development in the area and continues to attract some of the Southeast’s most acclaimed restaurants and retailers.

“Building the bridge to connect Westside Urban Market (JCT Kitchen) to the White Provision project started as a fantastic thought in a meeting between Michael Phillips, Markham Smith and myself. It took 18 months for it to happen, but it transformed how people thought about the area,” he said. “At the time, the two properties had separate owners and the bridge shows how neighbors worked together to create a great, iconic space in Atlanta. It’s one of my favorite successes because it shows what can happen from a crazy idea and a lot of effort.”

He added, “It wasn’t just building a bridge; it’s the creation of an urban neighborhood.”

Above and Beyond

On a walk across the WSPD bridge or on a drive down Howell Mill, Faussemagne’s influence can be seen in living color. He has won Development of Excellence awards from the Urban Land Institute (ULI), Atlanta Regional Commission, Atlanta Urban Design Commission and the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation for projects he developed—with no signs of slowing down soon.

“I’ve always been entrepreneurial in my approach,” he said. “The adaptive reuse and creative office space model was extremely entrepreneurial up until about the past five years in Atlanta. These projects didn’t dominate the landscape then as much as you see them doing today.”

With the partners of the White Provision Development Co., he formed Westbridge Realty Partners in 2010 in further pursuit of historic properties and new ideas. In 2017, the company delivered Stockyards, the redevelopment of buildings dating back to the 1990s into 143,500 square feet of creative office and entertainment space.

Around the same time, one of Faussemagne’s business partners retired. In 2018, he joined long-time comrades, Pierce Lancaster, a former vice president of Jamestown, and Hank Farmer, a former development manager at Jamestown, at their own venture known as Third & Urban.

“As the creative office and adaptive reuse trend has grown, not only in Atlanta but across the Southeast, we decided to merge our firms last summer,” he said. “The merger also gave us the opportunity to move outside of Atlanta.”  Combined, Third & Urban represents a significant amount of the creative, adaptive reuse space in Atlanta as well as is developing projects in Nashville, Orlando and Birmingham, including the Denham Building — a project resurrecting a 1920s warehouse as 86,000 square feet of office and 72 urban-style loft apartments with retail, restaurants and Monday Night Brewing’s first location outside of Atlanta.

“Challenges have changed for me throughout my career,” he said. “Initially, the challenge was getting projects capitalized. Fifteen years ago, we would find these great projects but there weren’t a lot of partners who were interested in doing adaptive reuse or creative projects. Institutional funds weren’t available like they are today, so we had to come up with unconventional capital stacks to get deals done.”

Today, he said his biggest challenge is also his biggest opportunity: continuing to find new projects that make sense amid an increased demand, with more office tenants now seeking nontraditional workplaces.

“The desire for being in a glass tower is being replaced with a desire for being in a great, old warehouse and the corner office has been replaced with a cool break room. At the end of the day, it’s a shift in how corporate America views its employees in the workplace,” he said, also citing technology advances as a driving force for the pendulum swing. “At our Stockyards project, the advertising firm Fitzgerald & Co. relocated from a glass tower in Buckhead to a 1920s slaughterhouse with one of the best-designed and best-built office spaces in Atlanta today. Not only is Stockyards hip and highly amenitized with great restaurants and fun things to do like the Painted Duck, there’s also the technology aspects necessary for the office component to thrive.”

Going for Gold

Speaking of change, Faussemagne’s favorite thing about his job is the constant variety.
“One day I might be dealing 100% with capital markets, but the next day I might be in a design meeting trying to figure out how to preserve some existing graffiti on a building in Nashville with a new painting plan,” he said. “Every day is a little bit different.”

He also enjoys the ability to work with a wide variety of firms, from architecture and design to environmental and construction to law and leasing.

Becoming a member of ULI’s Atlanta chapter was a natural fit for him. “When you look at the landscape of ULI, it’s so diverse,” he said. “It’s not just a broker-focused group or architecture-focused group. ULI provides a platform for the development community to come together and engage in open dialogue. One person may work on the affordable housing sector, another may be an attorney working on tax credit deals. You get to see multiple opinions rather than the commonality of people you would typically talk to everyday. That, to me, is the greatest benefit of ULI — it’s the connection point of so many different disciplines.”

Faussemagne is currently serving his second term on the ULI Atlanta Advisory Board. In addition to his work with Third & Urban and ULI, Faussemagne serves as board president of the Upper Westside Improvement District, a community improvement district (CID) that formed in 2016 by civic-minded commercial property owners to enhance the transportation network, connectivity, safety and experience for all in the neighborhood through investment and community partnerships.

“We have a lot of infrastructure challenges and it’s a constant effort, but the district has done a fantastic job of pushing these agendas at a municipal level,” he said of the CID. “We’re trying to make sure the neighborhood can grow and continue to succeed for years to come.” Recently, the CID acquired 4.5 acres in partnership with the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management for the creation of a public greenspace at 17th Street and Northside Drive at Howell Mill, also known as the Waterworks. The CID is also actively working on a complete streets plan to transform how the Howell Mill corridor manages traffic not just for vehicles, but for cyclists and pedestrians, too.

The most important item on his agenda? Spending time with his family. Faussemagne lives in Buckhead with his wife Katie and their children. As a father of two boys, ages 15 and 9, he spends a lot of time on basketball courts and baseball fields.

“I’ve enjoyed volunteer coaching at Buckhead Baseball, meeting families that turned into friends and being involved in our kids’ lives,” he said.

When he finds the time every few weeks or so, Faussemagne might dust off his guitar. “A guy that I used to play with is now an attorney in Birmingham, and we always joke that after our kids get through high school, we’ll put the band back together,” he said.

Some may be surprised to learn his summer job in college was performing at Harbour Town in Hilton Head, S.C. The amateur entertainer and avid music lover even had a short stint managing the singer-songwriter Edwin McCain (of ‘90s hits like “Could Not Ask for More” and “I’ll Be”) before making the switch to real estate.

“Edwin was just starting his musical career in Hilton Head and we got to know each other there,” said Faussemagne. Through his connections, Faussemagne helped McCain expand his following throughout the Carolinas and Virginia. “It was a lot of fun, Edwin found success and I was lucky to be part of his team at the right time.”

Next to Faussemagne’s ULI Development of Excellence award, there is a gold record hanging on his wall in his office to prove it.

Only time will tell what connections he’ll make or crazy ideas he’ll have next — but chances are, history will repeat itself.