MetLife's plans for its Midtown property are taking shape with a 500K SF office tower.

MetLife Investment Management, in conjunction with JLL, revealed plans for 1295 Spring St., the first phase of an 8.5-acre, mixed-use project on an assemblage off West Peachtree, 17th and Spring streets formerly called Metropolitan Center. The parcels include a collection of older buildings and the Nan Thai Fine Dining restaurant.

MetLife Investment Management is the asset management division of life insurance giant MetLife.

MetLife is proposing a 500K SF office tower with 87K SF of retail, plus a hotel and residential situated around a central pedestrian promenade. The project could move forward on a speculative basis, meaning MetLife could start development without any anchor tenants in tow, MetLife spokesperson James Murphy said. The proposal is being pitched this month to the Midtown Development Review Committee.

“We are currently expending resources on the project on a speculative basis, but are also softly marketing the commercial components in an effort to secure pre-leasing,” Murphy wrote in an email to Bisnow. “We're in talks with potential tenants. These are early-stage discussions.”

The first phase of MetLife's project is on the parcel located on 17th and Spring streets on the east side of the Interstate 85/75 connector, close to the Arts Center MARTA Station. MetLife officials offered no delivery date for the first portion of the project.

MetLife's site was among the properties Georgia state officials pitched to Amazon for its HQ2 project, officials previously told Bisnow. While the first phase would barely cover Amazon's total wish list of 8M SF, it can potentially field Amazon's initial need of at least half a million SF of office, although Amazon has said it would need that space in 2019.

MetLife's total property could accommodate all of the $5B HQ2 development in Midtown, a project that promises the winning city 50,000 high-paying jobs.