Examples of Industrial Re-use: Atlanta

[simms3]

thanks for the photos, simms.

I used to live here.  Its the old Seed Factory building.  I lived on the 4th floor, and it was just an amazing space.

Very cool!  Didn't know you lived in Atlanta!

[simms3]

Is the West Egg Cafe any good?  The last time I was up, I tried Carver's Country Kitchen, which isn't too far away.

Never been to either.  Heard mixed reviews on West Egg, but people up here always expect food tht only God himself could serve up.  When I saw West Egg yesterday, there was a line out the door, and it wasn't breakfast or lunch hour if that gives you any indication.

I literally rarely leave Midtown except to work, which I don't feel bad about because Atlanta is becoming so dense and bustling that I don't even need to think about other places.

[simms3]

Brickworks was a partnership between a few impassioned guys who wanted to do this kind of thing.  They convinced the lenders, they signed the tenants, they got the word out, and they along with Jamestown have made Midtown West one of the top destinations for Atlantans.  There was nothing to do here, nowhere to live around here, or no reason to even drive through, and now the place is literally an 18 hour walking environment (better in the Spring and Fall, heh) without a MARTA stop.

First came the Carriage Works rehab.  Cox Enterprises had offices there and a few were lofts.  Then a few apartment buildings like M Street Apartments sprang up, giving the area about 700 new residents.  Of course Georgia Tech is right there, and it bought land and created a technology incubator (it's off the beaten path and you can't see it), but all of a sudden tech firms and design firms became interested in the area.  Then these guys came up with the idea for rehabbing the Brickworks and eventually got around to it.

At the same time was the White Provisions Jamestown development.

Aside from the restored residences along Marietta Street and the loft rehabs, unfortunately for Jacksonville big money and big interests spurred the redevelopment of West Midtown/Luckie Marietta.  There was a foreseen demand, available buildings, and a huge capital source.  Georgia Tech helped (nothing like it in Jacksonville).  Jamestown helped (they won’t eye Jacksonville).  And wealthy businessmen in Atlanta with capital connections helped (we have people like that on Jacksonville’s level who could help).

In Castleberry Hill’s case, and in West Midtown’s case, tenants were dispersed among various established areas in Atlanta, including Buckhead.  As soon as these areas picked up and known developers were behind it, it was easy for them to decide to relocate.  Castleberry Hill is definitely more grassroots, but it has a theme that was attractive to artists and gallery owners.

[simms3]

Further west of West Midtown is another area that picked up in just the last 2 years…





I foresee this kind of stuff in Jacksonville:









This restaurant I have tried to eat at twice.  One time was a 2 hour wait, and the other time was an hour wait…




I have to resize my pics coming up, but there is even more stuff on the East side of Atlanta and the north side of town.

[simms3]

Before I move on to the East Side, I must show Atlantic Station as an obligatory move and a couple of industrial districts north of the city that are developed between WWII and the 1970s (these are districts that I would compare to what Jacksonville has on parts of the inner northside).

Atlantic Station was originally the Atlantic Steel mill, which employed 2,300 workers and produced 750,000 tons of steel a year.  It was Georgia Power’s largest customer and today would eat up the same amount of electricity as 80,000 average homes.  The workers lived in nearby Home Park.

Jim Jacoby, a well known Atlanta developer, purchased the site in 1998 and found a capital partner in AIG Global Real Estate (basically completely disbanding now after the meltdown a couple years ago).  The site was purchased for $76 million, but had to be remediated, which would take place over the next 5 years and cost another fortune.  Atlantic Station’s retail component was completed in 2004, and the site has added new towers and apartments ever since (it’s a 15 million square foot buildout).  My company just recently purchased much of AS for a huge discount ($75M) and is acting as the equity partner to North American Properties to redevelop AS.

Here is how the area where the steel mills appear today, on a Sunday afternoon.

Atlantic Station back then as a steel mill…courtesy of EPA.gov



The only remaining portion of the steel mill behind the property, courtesy of Atlantic Station’s website…









These buildings are newer if you couldn’t tell…



Pieces of the mill are scattered about and used as decoration...



This is looking north to Buckhead, so you have an idea where it is (if you drive through Atlanta, you can't miss it as it is across from Midtown between Midtown and the Westside as seen above).

[simms3]

The newer industrial areas that can provide lessons to Jacksonville.  Each has a clustering of similar businesses, and each is packed in tightly.  I would compare them to what we have on the inner northside (and I know some of our buildings are older, but we don’t have a “huge” older building stock, most are mid-20th century).

Maps for relation.

[simms3]

MIAMI CIRCLE

Just as we think of Miami as a design center, so too is Atlanta (perhaps even moreso ironically).  This is the product of being a design hub (which is only true of Atlanta because of Georgia Tech grad and world famous architect and Atlanta native John Portman).  Portman developed Peachtree Center downtown (which is the series of office buildings, underground mall, and all of the big downtown convention hotels including the Westin).  He also developed the Atlanta Merchandise Mart, Gift Mart, Inforum, and Fashion Mart.  All of this takes up 7.9 million square feet downtown.  He also developed the ADAC (Atlanta Decorative Arts Center), which is quite famous.

Because of all of this, all of the high fashion designers of anything from furniture to art to clothing to appliances, etc have boutiques or stores or galleries in Atlanta.  Miami Circle is just one clumping of a lot of this kind of stuff and is where one would go for lighting and antiques, or specialty items.  Midtown is where one would go for high end European appliances and kitchens.  Westside is for art and outdoor decorations/furniture.  Buckhead and Midtown to a lesser degree are where all of the “Architectural Digest” ad stores are.

Large decorative object in front of ADAC.  These kinds of things can turn an ugly building or ugly area into something much cooler.



Some of the following buildings are still a little unsightly, but all are much better than what they were originally built as.  Most of this is due to simple, inexpensive façade work, keeping the interior largely as it was.  A lesson for Jacksonville that does not require big money to do the work, but it requires demand for a particular good (in Atlanta’s case, expensive antiques and interior furninshings/carpets, etc).

[simms3]

OLD FOURTH WARD

This area is VERY hot right now.  Because it is on the Atlanta Beltline, currently under construction, apartments, parks, and commercial space have popped up all over the place.  Houses are being rehabbed, too.  This area was dominated by Section 8 towers and apartments just 5 years ago, and now boasts a high and growing average household income (will easily be close to $80K-$90K within 5 years).  A new park was just opened a couple of weeks ago (one of several new parks along the Beltline).

City Hall East will become Ponce City Market.  The former Sears store and regional headquarters for the South was built in phases between 1925 and the 1960s.  It is 2 million square feet, making it one of the largest buildings in the country.

Jamestown (as we have heard a few times already), just closed on the building, paying $27M.  It will redevelop it into a Chelsea Market type of thing (Chelsea Market in NYC is actually an Atlanta creation, being that Green Street Properties and Jamestown, both of Atlanta, developed it in a similar building).  It will include lofts, office space, and retail (and the front façade will be broken into individual components on the lower two floors where the retailers will be).  In addition, it can fit 2,000 parking spaces inside.

The building in the 1950s:



Renderings of the improvements:





Today (well yesterday morning):



Shopping strip center across the street…with one of 9 Whole Foods in Atlanta:



Lofts next door with retail below:





And there are old re-used warehouses around the entire area.  One is a scooter shop.  One is a club.  One is an antiques shop called Paris on Ponce.  A few are restaurants, etc.

The area as it is developing literally in the past year:


^^^^Jane Fonda lived here and just sold her place

The new park that opened a couple weeks ago:

[simms3]

ATLANTA BELTLINE:

I don’t even feel like explaining the Beltline or all of the transportation improvements occurring in Atlanta.  It’s big, though.

Adaptive re-use along the future beltline…this kind of development literally forms a ring around the entire city and is only being helped by the Beltline:









Two Urban Licks, a Concentrics Restaurant.  It takes up space in this warehouse and has the coolest valet line ever (you drive up into the warehouse).  You can play bocce ball outside while waiting for food…it wasn’t lunch or dinner hour when I took this.





Transit and bike friendliness are working to make these old kinds of buildings extremelt valuable:



The Masquerade (a music venue and multistory club)

[simms3]

What it looks like inside Two Urban Licks, which looks pretty nondescript up there…

[simms3]

Another smoke stack…I like these:

[simms3]

INMAN PARK

I’m tired of explaining and advertising Atlanta…these pictures are of the quiet parts, but Inman Park is the hottest neighborhood in the city right now.  It, too, was ghetto 5-10 years ago.  Now it is borderline unaffordable.  Some of the best restaurants in the city are in Inman Park, which is also connected via rail.  There is a dense “downtown” area to Inman Park, not shown.  These are the quiet parts, but cool parts nonetheless.









Rathbun’s and Krog Bar



Inside Rathbun’s:



Inside Krog Bar:





Doesn’t look like much, but Rathbun’s Steak is in this building…



And what it looks like inside…I had my graduation dinner here:



An old water tower…

[simms3]

FULTON COTTON MILL LOFTS:

Built in the 1880s.  9 buildings in total, including 3 really large buildings.  Partially destroyed in the 2008 tornado, which lopped off the top 2 floors of one of the buildings.  Had a friend who was an architecture student who lived here.  Best views of town from the roof (there is a terrace up there).

The surrounding houses are all 1880s buildings, too, and housed the 2,300 workers.  Some of these houses are now businesses on certain roads.  Very cool, dense area.

[simms3]

Brief pause from buildings to display something you won’t see in Jacksonville or much of the south outside of Atlanta.  Because of the hills, the trains, the wide roads, the density, the older built environment, and MARTA, there are tunnels EVERYWERE.  This is a common site.  Driving through Atlanta on the highway (the Connector), you’ll even go through what you might consider tunnels if you are not used to that.  There is the huge half mile long tunnel that is 12 lanes wide under the Atlanta airport, which has huge ventilators.  There is the tunnel where 400 goes under Buckhead, which also has ventilators.  There are steel tunnels with girders and supports that look like the El in Chicago or New York.  There are concrete tunnels such as this.  And yes, people stroll through to observe the graffiti or make their mark.  Enough people walk through these tunnels such that people post flyers here.  Ok, enjoy.







Not really a tunnel, but a common scene:

[thelakelander]

Stephen, what's you favorite US city and why?