Will Ponce City Market Become Atlanta’s Chelsea Market?
Decatur Metro | August 17, 2011
Jamestown Properties’ planned renovations to the old Sears warehouse on Ponce de Leon Ave has even got the New York Times all atwitter. Or at least paying attention.
Early blueprints make Ponce City Market look not unlike Chelsea Market, the renovated biscuit factory that leases space to the Food Network and other technology and media companies. It will contain high-ceilinged office space, a range of restaurants, a food market, apartments, exhibition spaces, a skywalk and perhaps even an amusement park, Jamestown says.
The plan calls for reducing the building’s square footage by nearly half, to 1.2 million square feet, constructing a parking garage with at least 2,000 spaces inside the structure and demolishing many internal walls and ceilings. But Jamestown says it will preserve the exterior and as much equipment as possible from the original Sears department store and distribution center. A giant electrical panel will become the backdrop for a bar, and a train trestle will be repurposed as a pedestrian walkway.
Maybe I just haven’t been paying attention, but the article sure makes it sound like Jamestown knows what it’s doing. In addition to owning NYC’s Chelsea Market, they’ve dealt with renovations of the former New York Port Authority (which was recently purchased by Google), and a section of Chattanooga called “Warehouse Row“.
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Here is a quote from the article:
“We see this as being transformational for that area of Atlanta,” said Ernestine Garey, the executive vice president and chief operating officer for the Atlanta Development Authority. “It is a huge, huge opportunity.”
For once I don’t think a city booster is exaggerating.
SO SO SO excited about this project. The only unfortunate thing about it is that it faces the urban planning fail that is Midtown Place. Otherwise, it’s going to be amazing. The idea of putting parking inside the structure is awesome, since it cuts down on excess space and saves Atlanta from another unfriendly deck/parking lot.
I agree with JonC on the main drawback being the nearby Midtown Place. The car-focus of that development is something that really drags this area down and keeps it from being as exciting an urban center as it could be.
Otherwise, I’m very happy to see this Ponce Market project come along and to see this building being put to good use. I’ll reserve the highest accolades until we find out if the transit component of the adjacent Beltline is going to be funded, though even if the Beltline exists as a bike/ped path for the foreseeable future, that’s still a boon for this area in that it makes it more approachable by alternative transportation (apart from, obviously, the #2 MARTA bus).
If this ends up anywhere near the vision, it will be a fantastic addtion. How cool would it be to have Foodnetwork then decide to put a satellite studio in the building…maybe an Iron Chef studio? Alton Brown might enjoy the commute.
“Car focus” – you mean hiding the parking area inside the structure instead of visible parking is a better way to provide parking spaces for customers, clients, and employees? I have lots of reasons to prefer publicly visible parking areas instead of dark, unattended, and invisible parking facilities (which also sometimes make it difficult to find my car when my errands are done). Otherwise, I am excited about this renovation and new use of a really good market location.
Sorry for the confusion, Chira — I was responding to JonC’s remarks about the Midtown Place development on the north side of Ponce. That’s the one that I think it overly car focused. The Ponce City Market is not.
But… there is a need for parking at both market centers. Either the parking area will be visible, or it will be within the structure. Still car-centric, either way. I’m just saying I prefer openly visible parking areas to enclosed parking garages, for safety’s sake.
I think the lighting & business is key, whether it be landlot or deck– if the deck here is done well with lighting and point, and the development is busy enough to have lots of folks in and out of the garage decks. safety shouldn’t be any more of an issue in the deck than on a surface street.
An amusement park? Calling Sid & Marty Krofft – bring the pinball machine back!
http://atlantatimemachine.com/downtown/omni_01.htm
Noooo!! I went to World of Krofft as a kid. I still have nightmares about that spider lady puppet thing. Future generations should be spared.
I hope there will be plenty of wall murals in the plan…
Probably not. I predict an opposition group to the murals will start mobilizing their own crusade to have a Dead Walls project, where everything in town will be painted perfectly boring and beige.
Oh, well if we’re going to antagonize in the realm of extremes… I really hope all the walls in your house are covered in dramatic murals, otherwise it could be used as a counter-argument.
I know you were just being antagonistic, but I would say that’s muddying the waters.
People *support* lots of things, they aren’t directly involved in.
Lot’s of straight people support gay marriage, though they’ll never be in one. I support sick people having access to pot, but I don’t smoke it myself, and doubt I ever will.
Cuba has replaced DTR as the resident sh*t stirrer! And I was like putty in her hands…
I spent a few hours at the Ferry Building on Embarcadero in San Francisco this summer and thought about how wonderful something like that would be in Atlanta. This sounds great.
Very exciting news.
I will be nice for a few months…. then it will go the way of Atlantic Station: GHETTO. I give it a year until the first mugging, assault, or armed robbery by a member of the local feral population and then it is all down hill from there.