Atlantic Station

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Part of the old steel mill serves as a statue in central park

Atlantic Station is a huge new urban renewal project on the northwestern edge of Midtown Atlanta. First planned in the mid-1990s, its 138 acres (558,000 m²) of mixed-use land development is on the former brownfield site of the Atlantic Steel mill. It is so large it now has its own ZIP code: 30363.

According to developer Jim Jacoby, as of September 2005, 85% of the retail space had been leased, as well as 95% of the currently-built office space, comprised now of one mid-rise office tower leased by Wachovia for its regional headquarters, the Arnall Golden Gregory LLP law firm, and construction company Carter. The first tenant to open was IKEA on June 29 2005, though another anchor, Dillard's, and additional traditional mall stores opened during the grand opening in late October 2005. Several condos and loft-style apartments are already open and many sold for upwards of $300,000. A 16-screen Regal movie theater with 4000 stadium-style seats is also open along with many restaurants, cafes and bars.

Contents

1 Layout

1.1 Central shopping district
1.2 Housing

2 Transportation
3 Tenants
4 History

4.1 Fire

5 Homeowners
6 External links

Layout

The main features of Atlantic Station lie along 17th Street between the Downtown Connector and Northside Drive.

Central shopping district

Northeast side of shopping district and parking deck

The central shopping district is on the East side of Atlantic Station, closest to the Downtown Connector. The shopping district is set up in the style of an outdoor mall, with many choices of shopping, dining, and a movie theater. The central shopping district is actually above two stories of one of the country's largest parking decks (billed as second to the Mall of America's in Minneapolis). With the parking garage underneath, the shopping area is pedestrian friendly and many of the surface level streets are often closed off.

Housing

Central park, facing east

The main housing area consists of a cluster of apartment complexes surrounding a large park. The park is in the middle of 17th street, which is split into two one-way sections in this area. There is a sizeable pond in the middle of the park which is fenced off and a bridge to cross it in the middle. In addition, a few artifacts from the old steel mill have been placed around the park as statues.

Transportation

The main thoroughfare through Atlantic Station is 17th Street. A new 17th Street bridge was built over the Downtown Connector as part of the Atlantic Station project. This bridge as well as the remainder of 17th Street consist of four main lanes of traffic as well as a bus lane and a bike lane in each direction. Access to public transportation is provided via a free shuttle that runs to the Arts Center MARTA rail station and a recently extended MARTA bus route #10 (Peachtree). The number 10 bus also serves Arts Center Station. A freight train line runs along the northern border, but no passenger service is available. Plans are in place for one additional MARTA bus route (#100) as well as connecting with Georgia Tech's busses. Atlantic Station is within walking distance of Home Park and Georgia Tech.

Tenants

IKEA's store is its third-largest in North America, with its second-largest restaurant, and the only one to serve grits. It's also the first and so far only store in the Southeast U.S. and employs 600. A two-level underground parking garage is beneath the store. The first person in line when the store opened had been there a week, the second person came the day afterward, both were newlywed men who had the blessing of their wives to camp out for prizes of free furniture. IKEA is now building a facility at the Port of Savannah, in part to support the new store.

History

First opened in 1901, the steel mill had been nearly closed in the mid-1970s, remaining nominally operational primarily to avoid the huge costs it would have been assessed to remediate the soil contamination present after years of operation. It was purchased in the 1990s by developer Jim Jacoby, who also redeveloped Florida's Marineland which opened on March 4, 2006.

The redevelopment was financed largely by private investment, but was heavily supplemented by a special tax district to pay for city tax bonds for public utilities (streets, sidewalks, and sewers). The new yellow 17th Street Bridge, constructed at the behest of Atlantic Station's developers to span the I-75/85 Downtown Connector that separated Atlantic Station and Home Park from the rest of Midtown, was built by contractors for GDOT.

Controversy developed at the time of construction not only due to the bridge's unusual color, but also for GDOT's insistence that it meet suburban highway standards. Indeed, the bridge is eight lanes wide and the enormous right-of-way afforded to 17th Street east of the bridge lacks street parking and utilizes an unusual arrangement of placing street trees and lamps at the edge of the adjacent buildings' property lines instead of against the street.

The developer hopes Atlantic Station will be known for its energy efficiency and use of renewable energy, and wants much of it to be LEED-certified. It is also expected to somewhat mitigate urban sprawl and reduce air pollution by allowing many more people to live and work within walking distance of most everyday things they need. It also is relatively close to a MARTA subway station (to which is it connected by a shuttle bus), and the planned Belt Line transit/greenway project (which is expected to pass within a few miles or kilometers of the development).

Fire

In July 2005, a pre-dawn fire on July 24th completely destroyed a large wood-frame residential building under construction. Two days later, it was ruled arson after a major investigation. In addition to the destruction of the 65-unit Elements building, which was only framed-in at the time, another 80 inhabited units at the Art Foundry across 16th Street had damage to the façade, including scorching, broken windows, and melted miniblinds. Damage was at least five million dollars to the buildings alone, plus the 18 cars parked on the street destroyed and another 7 seriously damaged from the intense heat. A reward of 10,000 dollars is being offered by the state, plus another 50,000 from the Lane Company, which was constructing the building. Insurance by Lloyd's of London and Chubb Group will cover the company's damages.

Homeowners

The following is a list of prominent celebrities, athletes, and business people who are homeowners in Atlantic Station.

John Abraham, Atlanta Falcons DE
Frank Ski, DJ V103
Crash Clark, 99x

External links

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