ATLANTA: Sembler's Edgewood Retail District Breaks Ground...

[ATLonthebrain]

Sembler Breaks Ground on $50M Mixed-Use Project
By Alex Finkelstein
Last updated: Oct 23, 2003 10:43AM

ATLANTA-Sembler Co. of St. Petersburg, FL broke ground today on Edgewood Retail District, a planned 42-acre, 800,000-sf shopping center and 150-home community that is being developed at an estimated hard construction cost of $50 million in the city's historic Little Five Points area.
Area brokers tell GlobeSt.com the venture is the largest and most important intown development of its kind in east Atlanta in 30 years. Major national retailers already have reserved space in the center which is tentatively scheduled to open by March 2005. On the waiting list are Lowe's Home Improvement, Target, Kroger, Barnes & Noble, Bed Bath & Beyond, Ross Dress For Less, Cost Plus World Market and Petsmart.

Larry Wood, a broker with locally based Bullock Mannelly Partners which structured the project, tells GlobeSt.com he is "truly amazed at the time, effort and expense put forth by the Sembler Co. to plan a project that incorporates the many design issues sought by the local neighborhoods and government officials, while putting together a financially viable shopping center that (also) works for the merchants who will occupy the project."

Wood calls the Sembler effort "one of the greatest balancing acts I have ever seen." He and Bullock Mannelly broker John Speros represented Atlanta Gas Light Co. in the sale of its 34-acre former headquarters site on Moreland Avenue to Sembler. Atlanta Gas relocated to Midtown.

Two existing office buildings and a service truck parking facility were housed on the former Atlanta Gas property. The utility commissioned Bullock Mannelly to determine the highest and best use for the site. Retail was the brokers' recommendation. The existing structures were demolished.

"The east Atlanta area is experiencing major positive changes in demographics, household income and housing values that had not been recognized in the 2000 census," says Speros. "East Atlanta is an area that had been overlooked and underserved by retailers for many years, requiring area residents to drive long distances to find quality retail stores."

The Sembler project on Moreland Avenue is situated between the Inman Park and Edgewood/Candler Park MARTA rapid-rail stations. Bullock Mannelly also brokered the sale to Sembler of a key four-acre parcel along Moreland Avenue that adjoins the Atlanta Gas tract. The four-acre site housed a former commercial bakery that had been converted to retail and mini storage uses by AA Action Inc.

[Buck]

How come I had not heard of this before! Sounds...big!

[Terminus]

How come I had not heard of this before! Sounds...big!

What? This will be the third largest retail project in the City Limits (after Lenox then Atlantic Station). It was HIGHLY controversial. I should know b/c we did this project.

Visit my co's website at www.tunspan.com and click "Featured Projects" from more info.

[scguy]

I think it was so controversial because of the retailers that are supposed to anchor the project, (Lowes, BB&B, etc.) am I right? But the project will be streetfont retail, right? Not your typical suburban style development.

[Rail Claimore]

Caleb, thanks for the link to your firm's website. That's f*cking awesome!!! :)

[Chris Creech]

I think it was so controversial because of the retailers that are supposed to anchor the project, (Lowes, BB&B, etc.) am I right? But the project will be streetfont retail, right? Not your typical suburban style development.

There are actually still big boxes buried in the development. But there's street front retail too. I'm lookin forward to seeing it, just cause it tries to reconcile so many wildly different agendas. The developer has done more traditional strip malls intown like his property on Ponce across from the old Sears building (Home Depot, Borders, PetSmart, WholeFoods, Staples). A lot of people were afraid that this would be more of the same. So they've had to balance LOTS of neighborhood input with the big box retailers need for parking, floor size, etc.

I think it's going to be an interesting hybrid project.

Is the developer still footing the bill for the Moreland bus/trolley (or whatever) that's supposed to connect this project with L5P and East Atlanta Village?

[joecool]

This project is going to ruin little 5 points, Eveyone in that eare is against it. they dont want ross and bed bath and beyond in that area. what crap!

[joecool]

so is glenwood park, eagle park, 11th street lofts, auburn ave, juniper street projects gonna happen any time soon,

I looked at the atlanta gas light project. it doesnt look that bad, i just hope it doesnt look like something out of the suburbs.

[Terminus]

so is glenwood park, eagle park, 11th street lofts, auburn ave, juniper street projects gonna happen any time soon,

I looked at the atlanta gas light project. it doesnt look that bad, i just hope it doesnt look like something out of the suburbs.

Don't worry. My firm DOES NOT do suburban crap. We are probably Atlanta's only pure new urbanist firm.

Glenwood Park and Eagle Mill are underway, 11th Street is pending a market upswing, and the streetscapes are pending funding.

[Chris Creech]

[QUOTE=joecool ]This project is going to ruin little 5 points, Eveyone in that eare is against it. they dont want ross and bed bath and beyond in that area. what crap!

Ruin L5P? that area used to be way cooler, fun art galleries, better restaurants - it's really gotten really run down, and has basically been taken over by suburban punk wannabes.

L5P NEEDS to reinvent itself and do some work or it's going to continue to decline. I now prefer East Atlanta Village myself. The Inman park crowd wants nothing to do with L5P, and aside from a few restaurants and the theaters offers little benefit for it's neighbors. In fact, with the homeless problem there and all the petty crime, some see it as more of a problem than a plus. It's really lost touch with the intown crowd.

I think a little competition will be good, Sembler, East Atlanta Village, Glenwood Park. L5P needs to take a good long look at exactly how they fit into the mix and draw up a game plan and work it.

L5P has one of the same big problems Buckhead has. Being a popular intown hotspot, doesn't mean you just sit back and ride the cash cow. You have to work hard with proactive planning and take steps to ensure that you stay on top of things and that services are in place to keep you that way.

[KevinAtl]

Where is East Atlanta Village?

[supastar]

It amazes me that people in Atlanta don't know where East Atlanta is. My friends here in NY always head there when they are in town, especially to the Earl and Flatiron. Kevin, it's off of Moreland Avenue, just over the I-20 bridge. My former roommate when I lived in ATL tended bar at the Fountainhead. That place was my second home. I hear it's something new now.

[KevinAtl]

The Fountainhead is now the East Side Lounge. Thanks supastar for the info.

EAST ATLANTA VILLAGE

On the edge of DeKalb County, near Moreland Ave and I-20, sits one of Atlanta’s hippest shopping, dining and entertainment districts. Since the mid-1990’s, the neighborhood has enjoyed a renaissance of sorts, and is now home to several eclectic shops, restaurants, bars and nightspots, as well as two of Atlanta’s most popular live music venues, the EARL and the Echo Lounge. Stroll the several blocks of Flat Shoals Road and Glenwood Avenue and discover vintage clothing, African drums, unique jewelry, luxurious home decor, kitschy gift items and more. Top off your shopping excursion with creative comfort food at the Heaping Bowl & Brew, pizza at Grant Central or a burger at the EARL or the Flatiron, have coffee and dessert at Sacred Grounds and stick around for the lounge scene at the Fountainhead or to see a local or national band.

[KevinAtl]

OCTOBER 30, 2003
Spotlight falls on Edgwood again as mixed-use development breaks ground


BY CAMILLE GOSWICK


More than a year ago, the Sembler Co. purchased a 34-acre tract of commercial property from Atlanta Gas Light Co. on Moreland Avenue. The developer was planning a traditional shopping center that would cost $60 million. Eighteen months later, company executives, neighborhood leaders and city officials broke ground on a 41-acre mixed-use development that will cost the company $110 million and break the mold of shopping center development.

Sembler Co. President of Development Jeff Fuqua said at a groundbreaking ceremony last Thursday morning that the final plans for the retail and residential project bore little resemblance to what the company originally planned for the site.

But then, he said, Sembler met Atlanta City Council Member Natalyn Archibong.

“Our first meeting with Council Member Archibong I’d like to describe as warm and furious,” Fuqua joked at the ceremony. “I think Natalyn wanted to see something a little more cutting edge, much more interesting, much more diverse and she gave us the marching orders that day to head in that direction or head out of town!”

Sembler also began then a long—and often contentious—relationship with the Organized Neighbors of Edgewood (ONE). Edgewood residents were wary of the commercial development, to say the least, and wanted to be involved in every facet of the project.

Thursday Fuqua described that first meeting with ONE as “very expensive.” The changes residents wanted, and got, in the development tacked on those additional $50 million for Sembler.

It took about 50 meetings, but ONE members and Sembler finally came to an agreement on the project’s scope and design earlier this year. Residents gave their approval to rezone the property, but only contingent on a lengthy list of conditions that spell out everything from buffers between commercial and residential uses to hours of construction at the site. Other conditions specify how sidewalks should look and how traffic should be routed to the development.

Former ONE president Garry Long said last week that the organization had stayed on top of the property sale from the moment the Atlanta Gas Light site went on the market, because residents “fully realized we had about 40 acres smack in the middle of the neighborhood that was zoned industrial.”

Long said the process was not an easy one, and pointed out that many residents still do not want the project to happen. But, he said, “it’s here and we’re looking forward to the days when we can actually get out and walk to a grocery store.”

“This side of town has zero services,” Long said, “and we need it. We have a lot of good things going on in Edgewood and this development is going to bring to fruition some of the good things that happen when you have a community that sits in a room with a developer and they negotiate.”

Long said that Sembler’s inclusion of both affordable workforce housing and senior housing came from Edgewood residents.

Archibong reiterated Long’s assertion that Edgewood’s side of Atlanta had seen little economic growth in many years.

“Taxpayers and citizens in the communities on the south side of Atlanta have been slighted and ignored when it came to the creation of economic development initiatives,” Archibong said. “Finally those days of being slighted and ignored are over.”

Fuqua said that Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin had personally asked for several changes in the development plans. Franklin disagreed with any notion that she was a shopping center designer, but she did say that she was, after all, a shopper.

“As the target age group for shopping, I think that there is some advantage in talking to the customer,” Franklin said.

She said that the Sembler development would mean great things not only for the Edgewood and Reynoldstown communities, but also for Atlanta as a whole.

Along the way, some neighboring communities also worried about the development’s impact on things like traffic voiced opinions that Edgewood residents were not competent enough to handle negotiations with a major company like Sembler. Both Fuqua and Archibong scoffed at those ideas last week.

“The neighborhood group that controlled (the planning) process was the most competent that we’ve ever run into,” Fuqua said, pointing out that ONE members include several architects, urban developers and other development professionals. “They showed us how to do it, they really did.”

Archibong said that negotiations over the development served as a galvanizing moment in her life as a public official, and she said that she had no doubts about residents’ prowess.

“If I am sure of anything that has happened in this process,” Archibong said, “I am sure that empowering the Edgewood and Reynoldstown community volunteers to work on the zoning and the architectural standards for this development was the right thing to do.”

[KevinAtl]

Lowe's to construct intown store
Tony Wilbert - Staff
Tuesday, December 23, 2003

Lowe's confirmed plans Monday to build a store south of Little Five Points that will be the chain's first location within the Atlanta city limits.

The 116,000-square-foot store will be in the Edgewood Retail District on Moreland Avenue near DeKalb Avenue. Sembler is developing a large retail center at the site, which used to be the headquarters campus of Atlanta Gas Light Co.

The Lowe's store is scheduled to open in the third quarter of 2004. Lowe's currently has 23 metro-area locations and plans to build a store in Sandy Springs and at Buckhead's Lindbergh Plaza, which Sembler plans to redevelop next year.

Lowe's said the store in Edgewood would represent a $16.5 million investment and create about 175 jobs. The entrance of Lowe's into Atlanta marks an escalation in its battle with rival Home Depot.

[zigzag]

cool project

[p-snack]

It amazes me that people in Atlanta don't know where East Atlanta is. My friends here in NY always head there when they are in town, especially to the Earl and Flatiron. Kevin, it's off of Moreland Avenue, just over the I-20 bridge. My former roommate when I lived in ATL tended bar at the Fountainhead. That place was my second home. I hear it's something new now.

PLEASE!!!!!!- don't tell everyone where East Atlanta Village is!!!!!
We don't want a bunch of posers with a tatoo and Lexus!!!!

And what's so bad about the Edgewood project?- most of us down here are happy that soon we won't have to drive to
bigbox suburban crapola to buy underwear.

... and screw those Inman Park NIMBY yuppies for trying to ruin it
I guess there underwear is delivered!

and it won't ruin L5P- most of the original businesses are gone and the Star Bar sucks these days.

[Chris Creech]

[QUOTE=supastar ]
and it won't ruin L5P- most of the original businesses are gone and the Star Bar sucks these days.

Two of my favorite overheard in L5Ps.


Starbuck's:

Customer: "So what exactly is in the Cranberry Crunch bar?"

Stoned Rastafarian Counter Girl: "Processed and bleached flour, refined SUGAR (eyes rolling), Artificial flavors, preservatives, a couple of Cranberries, but mainly lots and lots of processed and bleached flour and tons of refined SUGAR (eyes rolling). All that stuff will block your collon."

(yummmmmm!!! -- I guess Sevannandah wasn't hiring that day.)


Hamburger Place:

A friend of mine to the waitress: "So what burger's do you like?"

Post-punk/goth waitress: "I'm vegan, I'd never eat any of this crap, it creeps me out just to handle the plates, all that dead meat just sitting there."

(Again, yummmmm!!! -- I don't think she lasted, I've never seen her there again.)

[p-snack]

Well I guess some floks won't know better but, Starbucks will never run out Aurora-
and I wonder how long before Junkman's Daughter becomes a franchise?

[Terminus]

PLEASE!!!!!!- don't tell everyone where East Atlanta Village is!!!!!

The more people that know the better. I did the East Atlanta Village Study and still work with the businesses there. Most are struggling to break even. They need more visitors to shop there (not just eat) or decline looms.

[Chris Creech]

PLEASE!!!!!!- don't tell everyone where East Atlanta Village is!!!!!

The more people that know the better. I did the East Atlanta Village Study and still work with the businesses there. Most are struggling to break even. They need more visitors to shop there (not just eat) or decline looms.

I just moved to N. Ormewood park a couple of months ago. I've even signed up for the SAND Land Use and Zoning, and the Beautification Committees. I love walking over to East Atlanta now, sometimes I take my dogs over, have lunch, the ladies that run the little pet store are great. There's some great shops, Trader's, nice little restaurants etc. Some of the boutiques were always marginal, they seem to turn over a lot. The new antique center - well... This sort of thing is always two steps forward, one step back though.

I've been living here off and on for almost 20 years, and Grant Park has always been an "up and coming" neighborhood. It's just never had a central village or center, anything you'd consider a retail or community heart. I guess you have the Park and Zoo but they don't really figure into neighborhood day-to-day.

I think this whole area will really benefit from the Sembler development, the area being made even more attractive with more basic retail available so close by.

With the new bus/shuttle/trolley that is suppose to connect East Atlanta to Sembler to L5Ps, I'd could easy see walking up to EAV, then going up to Sembler, then L5P, shopping and having lunch.

Similarly, I'd be an easy walk through Glenwood Park to the Beltline, where I could zip up to the new City Hall East development, or up to Piedmont Park for an afternoon, then even over to Atlantic Station for a movie.

I just have this vision of tooling around intown Atlanta and being able to do all this neat stuff without a car. I'd love to see some sort of trolley proposal connecting EAV, to Edgewood, to L5Ps, even Poncy and Virginia Highlands. Those are all some of Atlanta's original trolley neighborhoods. It would be great to see them strung together again.

There's also so many areas that border the village that just scream "please redevelop me." There are definitely some opportunities there for some nice urban multistory mixed used buildings. I almost wish there was some sort of "village" zoning the city would implement to help nurture these areas. The old school still sits empty waiting to be redeveloped. There's some signs for new condos that's been there a couple of years. Hopefully things will pick up soon. There's still seems to be lots of people moving in.

Though petty crime is still a problem, and many old time residences just don't maintain there properties (despite city funding for elderly residents to fix up their homes). There are still 2 or 3 abandoned/vacant buildings on pretty much every street in my area. There's still drug dealer's out 24/7 on Sanders Street only two blocks from the new Glenwood Park development.

However, there are some really incredible old homes, there's a very unique mix of housing styles. I was told that because of the way the max lot size was changed over the years, people kept dividing lots and you have houses built turn of the centruy by houses built around 1910-1920 right beside 1950-60 homes. The density for single family is pretty good--how much yard do you really need anyhow?

Please come visit us down here!!! Better yet -- buy a house, or open a business!!! I'll even throw in some marketing services.

[p-snack]

Chris Creech- welcome to the neighborhood. I actually live on Ormewood Ave south of you. I've been here for a while and have really seen it change. Don't take the crime thing with ease.
It can still be dangerous. They love to prey on us coming out of clubs in the village sometimes... there's more security guards now in the back parking lots.

Terminus- yes I guess they do need help- I only said that because we don't want it to turn into Buckhead Village!

The Earl is my favorite place. My band is playing there New Years Eve. If you like to rock come on out- it should be fun, especially with the Woggles playing!