Atlantic Station

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

This article describes a recently developed mixed-use neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia. For the Atlantic Avenue subway stations in New York City, see the list of New York City Subway stations. For the light-rail station in Newark, New Jersey, see Atlantic Street (NLR station).

Atlantic Station is a large urban renewal project at the northwestern edge of Midtown Atlanta. First planned in the mid-1990s and officially opened in 2005, its 138 acres (558,000 m²) of mixed-use land development is on the former brownfield site of the Atlantic Steel mill. At completion, the redevelopment is ultimately projected to include 12 million square feet of retail, office, residential and hotel space as well as 11 acres of public parks. Its size encouraged the Postal Service to award the neighborhood 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.

1 Layout
- 1.1 The District
- 1.2 Housing
2 Transportation
3 Tenants
- 3.1 Anchors & Majors
4 History
- 4.1 Fire
5 Homeowners
6 External links

[edit] Layout

Northeast side of shopping district and parking deck

Central park, facing east

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

[edit] The District

The central shopping district is on the east side of Atlantic Station, closest to the Downtown Connector. It 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. With the 7,300 space parking garage underneath, the shopping area is pedestrian friendly and many of the surface level streets are often closed off for special events.

[edit] Housing

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 across it in the middle. In addition, a few artifacts from the old steel mill have been placed around the park as statues.

[edit] Transportation

The primary roadway access to and through Atlantic Station is an extension of 17th Street constructed by the developers. As part of the project, the Georgia Department of Transportation erected the yellow 17th Street bridge over the I-75/85 Downtown Connector expressway that separated Atlantic Station and the Home Park residential neighborhood from the rest of Midtown.

Controversy developed at the time of construction not only because of the bridge's unusual yellow color (resulting in its local nickname, the "Big Banana"), but also for GDOT's insistence that the bridge and street 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 section of the Street west of the bridge consists of four through-lanes of traffic, in addition to a bus lane, bike lane, and turning lanes in each direction, also lacking street parking.

Access to public transportation is provided via a free shuttle that runs every 5 - 15 minutes to the Arts Center MARTA rail station and a recently extended MARTA bus route (Peachtree #23) which also serves the Arts Center Station. A railroad line runs along the northern border, but twice-daily passenger service is available only at the Brookwood Amtrak station, a significant walking distance away. Shuttle service is also provided by Georgia Tech's bus system.

Despite the pedestrian-friendly arrangement of much of the eastern section of the project, parking is inexpensive and easily available in underground parking decks; indeed most visitors arrive by car. The lack of any neighborhood retail services in the western section of the project has also necessitated a considerable amount of driving, even within the project, by its western residents.

[edit] Tenants

IKEA's store is one of the largest in North America at 366,000 sq. ft., with its second-largest restaurant, and the only one to serve grits. It's also the furniture chain's only store in Georgia and employs 600. A two-level underground parking garage is beneath the store. IKEA is now building a facility at the Port of Savannah, in part to support the new store.

[edit] Anchors & Majors

The IKEA at Atlantic Station.

City Sports (10,807 sq. ft.)
Dillard's (226,953 sq. ft.)
Dolce (12,318 sq. ft.)
Fox Sports Grill (19,092 sq. ft.)
IKEA (366,000 sq. ft.)
La Fitness (46,837 sq. ft.)
Old Navy (16,880 sq. ft.)
Pier One Imports (11,993 sq. ft.)
Publix (30,312 sq. ft.)
Regal Cinemas (86,989 sq. ft., 16 screens)
West Elm (15,172 sq. ft.)
Z Gallerie (10,100 sq. ft.)

[edit] History

Office Highrise Construction.

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.

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 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).

[edit] 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 Mecaslin Street had damage to the façade, including scorching, broken windows, and melted miniblinds. At least five million dollars of damage was to the buildings, 18 cars parked on the street were destroyed and another 7 were 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.