ATLANTA | Development Thread V

[ls1z28chris]

Originally Posted by Dettmann1

You realize that Harry's is owned by whole foods, don't you? They got bought out several years ago.

No, I didn't know that. It doesn't make much of a difference, though, as one brand being the subsidiary of another doesn't mean they're the same. From my experience, there is a big difference between Harry's and Whole Foods.

[gttx]

Originally Posted by ls1z28chris

I'm curious as to what y'all think of Atlantic Station as a whole. I got run out of there by security because it is AIG property. City streets owned by a bailed out corporation of crooks? How about avoiding that nonsense as Atlanta grows.

Here's to hoping the conversation turns from grocery store debate.

Regrettably, the streets in AS are part of the parking deck superstructure, which is private property of AIG. However, no security can legally remove you from 17th Street, regardless of what you are photographing.

Photographer's rights:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=we...Rn7JY3-mgyOQ&sig2=o6Sbsa7EtvSSGaZLGSDF1A

[sevensixtwo]

Originally Posted by cybele

They're both excellent grocery stores. I think the discussion got started when someone claimed that a Kroger would be a "disaster" for the midtown mile.

I think it actually started when I said it would be bad for it IMFO. Dont misquote me please!
Now: Officially Over!

[ls1z28chris]

Originally Posted by gttx

Regrettably, the streets in AS are part of the parking deck superstructure, which is private property of AIG. However, no security can legally remove you from 17th Street, regardless of what you are photographing.

Photographer's rights:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=we...Rn7JY3-mgyOQ&sig2=o6Sbsa7EtvSSGaZLGSDF1A

That photographer's right document is a pretty badass reference. Since I was familiar with it before I went shooting AS, I was able to stand my ground to the extent possible. The problem is that I had a protracted conversation with what turned out to be a hostile security guard.

I had to probe the guy pretty extensively to get him to cough up that information. He didn't want to tell me where the property lines are. First he told me "everything." Then he told me "Everything until Target." Finally, I got pissed and told him I was going to just take pictures of whatever I wanted, wherever I wanted, unless he told me what was the southern boundary. He told me, "The cars, the traffic." I had to keep probing, and he finally told me "17th & 1/2 St." I didn't want him to give me some retarded vague description just to have security roll up on me in force because I hadn't actually AIG property.

I'm surprised that the whole thing is a parking structure, but I guess it makes sense. Throughout the property there are stairs that look similar to the kind of structures that lead to a subway in cities like New York. I thought they were odd at the time, but just disregarded them. Now I know what they are.

What is crazy about AS is that there are no signs or notices. I've been confronted by a security clown at BofA Plaza before, but took care of him by saying I know I'm not doing anything illegal because I'm on public property taking pics of things in public view. At Atlantic Station, it is all sidewalk and streets. It looks like any other street you'd see in the city. Well a lot nicer, but streets and sidewalks regardless.

What about the Millennium Gate structure and park just down the street?

[ls1z28chris]

Originally Posted by sevensixtwo

I think it actually started when I said it would be bad for it IMFO. Dont misquote me please!
Now: Officially Over!

[Atlwest281]

YAY I am so so glad. A major construction project that seems to be full steam ahead is the International terminal at Hartsfield. I was headed into work and drove right by the construction. Ive seen the renderings and the actual foot print but I cant quite visualize it. Is some of the Delta plex going to be taken down? I assume they are gonna spruce up the main drive into the terminal. They have done alot of work in a very little amount of time.

[boomtown]

Biotech research center to open in Atlanta
By DAN CHAPMAN, LAURA DIAMOND
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Georgia’s biotech industry expects to soon grow healthier.

Four of Atlanta’s leading health care and research organizations will announce Tuesday the creation of a medical research “innovation center” to speed to market medical devices.
Georgia Tech, St. Joseph’s Translational Research Institute, Piedmont Healthcare and the Georgia Research Alliance will each put up $100,000 to launch the Global Center for Medical Innovation. The center will be housed at Technology Enterprise Park, alongside Georgia Tech.
Gov. Sonny Perdue will formally unveil the research and business incubator this afternoon at the huge — and hugely important to Georgia — 2009 BIO International Convention at the Georgia World Congress Center. The conference is expected to draw 15,000, beginning Tuesday.

Emory University also will share some news: the establishment of a “new drug discovery institute” to be located on campus. In addition, the school will form a partnership with Australia’s Queensland Institute of Medical Research to develop vaccines, said David Stephens, vice president of research in the Woodruff Health Sciences Center at Emory.

Research and hospital officials talked excitedly Monday of the “innovation center,” which will initially focus on bringing cardiologic, orthopedic and pediatric devices and technologies to the marketplace.
The not-for-profit business incubator, which they label the first in the Southeastern United States, is expected to attract investors and medical-device companies — and keep Georgia-based inventors from taking their business, jobs and profits elsewhere.
“This will move us to the application stage of development, beyond the laboratory and the invention stage,” Michael Cassidy, president of the Georgia Research Alliance, said Monday. “We’ll be developing the ideas and ability to really scale up capacity so that [the inventions] will be attractive to industry.”
The initial $400,000 investment will be used to establish the center’s business plan. Investors are expected to pony up “several million dollars” later this year, Cassidy said, to create a “prototyping center” where medical devices will be test-driven.
Dr. Jay Yadav, chairman of the Piedmont Healthcare Center for Medical Innovation, said the public-private research and development center will pair doctors — who invent 80 percent of all medical devices — with engineers.
Doctors “are on the front line of taking care of the patient,” said Yadav, a cardiologist and CEO of a medical device company. “They understand the key problems and solutions. What’s missing is the engineering help, however, to turn these ideas into devices.”

Georgia is not synonymous with biotechnology, the use of biology to create products for medicine, food and the environment. California, Massachusetts and North Carolina all count more biotech investment, companies and prestige.
Georgia’s industry consists of mainly smaller, early-stage companies that haven’t registered as many biotech breakthroughs as the competition. Venture capitalists, the main financial source for startups, don’t typically invest in Georgia either.
Yet biotech and ancillary businesses are among the state’s fastest-growing industries, with more than 60,000 jobs responsible for billions of payroll and tax dollars, according to the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
Yadav, citing Atlanta’s renowned universities, hospitals and airport, said the innovation center should stamp Georgia firmly on the world’s biotech consciousness. “There’s no reason companies from Europe and all over the world can’t come to utilize this setup,” he said.

[boomtown]

Atlanta and Georgia lead U.S. in new business creation
If you’re looking for entrepreneurs, this is the place, national study finds
By DAVED MARKIEWICZ
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday, May 18, 2009

Metro Atlanta had the highest entrepreneurial activity rate among the 15 largest metropolitan areas in the country last year, and Georgia led all states, according to a new study.
Georgia also experienced the greatest increase in entrepreneurial activity over the last decade, the report, called the Kauffman Index, said.
Gov. Sonny Perdue said in a statement that the news “cements our status as the most entrepreneur-friendly state in the U.S.”
“By pretty much any measure, Georgia has done well,” said Robert W. Fairlie, author of the study and a professor of economics at the University of California Santa Cruz.
The Kauffman Index is considered a leading indicator of new business creation, identifying new businesses in their first month of significant business activity.
Last year, an average of 320 of every 100,000 adults nationwide created a new business each month, according to the study, up from 300 in 2007.
In Georgia, 590 of every 100,000 adults created a business each month. New Mexico was second with 580, followed by Montana, Arizona, Alaska and California.
Entrepreneurial activity was lowest in Pennsylvania, followed by Missouri, Wisconsin and West Virginia.
Georgia also experienced the greatest growth over the last 10 years, with an increase of 170 adults per 100,000 creating a business each month.
The availability of startup capital and the overall economic growth of a state are possible factors, Fairlie said.
Metro Atlanta led the nation’s largest cities in startups with 740 adults per 100,000 creating a business each month last year. Philadelphia was last.

[briantech]

Originally Posted by boomtown

Atlanta and Georgia lead U.S. in new business creation
If you’re looking for entrepreneurs, this is the place, national study finds
By DAVED MARKIEWICZ
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday, May 18, 2009

Metro Atlanta had the highest entrepreneurial activity rate among the 15 largest metropolitan areas in the country last year, and Georgia led all states, according to a new study.
Georgia also experienced the greatest increase in entrepreneurial activity over the last decade, the report, called the Kauffman Index, said.
Gov. Sonny Perdue said in a statement that the news “cements our status as the most entrepreneur-friendly state in the U.S.”
“By pretty much any measure, Georgia has done well,” said Robert W. Fairlie, author of the study and a professor of economics at the University of California Santa Cruz.
The Kauffman Index is considered a leading indicator of new business creation, identifying new businesses in their first month of significant business activity.
Last year, an average of 320 of every 100,000 adults nationwide created a new business each month, according to the study, up from 300 in 2007.
In Georgia, 590 of every 100,000 adults created a business each month. New Mexico was second with 580, followed by Montana, Arizona, Alaska and California.
Entrepreneurial activity was lowest in Pennsylvania, followed by Missouri, Wisconsin and West Virginia.
Georgia also experienced the greatest growth over the last 10 years, with an increase of 170 adults per 100,000 creating a business each month.
The availability of startup capital and the overall economic growth of a state are possible factors, Fairlie said.
Metro Atlanta led the nation’s largest cities in startups with 740 adults per 100,000 creating a business each month last year. Philadelphia was last.

That's awesome!

[Atlwest281]

This is all great news and assuredly bodes well for the metro and the state as a whole. Hopefully the Biotech incubator will cause the need for more office space and some of these limbo projects can be built. Also its great because it brings alot of new intellectual capital and educational capital(namely people) to the metro.

[ls1z28chris]

You beat me to the punch, boomtown! I read those articles on the train to Decatur today. Both of those stories are really exciting news for Atlanta.

This should end the Atlanta v. Charlotte debate. I'd rather have biotech engineers and researchers making a home to in this city than a museum to mechanics and the social decedents of bootleggers (as cool as they may be).

[jnihiser]

I was on a long run yesterday and noticed that the former SLICE space has been overhauled.

The building now includes outdoor seating IN the building. It's pretty sweet.

Anyone know what's going in there?

[briantech]

Originally Posted by jnihiser

I was on a long run yesterday and noticed that the former SLICE space has been overhauled.

The building now includes outdoor seating IN the building. It's pretty sweet.

Anyone know what's going in there?

Which Slice? The one on 11th & Howell Mill?

[scania]

Originally Posted by ls1z28chris

I honestly don't understand the obsession with wanting to bring big name retailers into Midtown. Sure, it would be nice to say we have all these huge international names down there, but I don't think it is feasible.

A lot of premium retailers are already planted up by or in Lenox, Phipps, and Perimeter, where they benifit from easy access off 285 and 75 from the northern suburbs in Fulton, Gwinett, and Cobb. Is the presence of those premium retailers in Midtown really going to pull those customers in from Buckhead or Sandy Springs?

Sure, the people who live in that immediate area would like to have those names in their neighborhood, but I don't think those folks are enough to sustain those stores.

You make a solid point!!!
P.S. That Midtown Mile report is a bunch of crap. There isn't 1 retail store that has survived in Midtown. There simply isn't enough people to support these stores.

[joecool]

Originally Posted by scania

You make a solid point!!!
P.S. That Midtown Mile report is a bunch of crap. There isn't 1 retail store that has survived in Midtown. There simply isn't enough people to support these stores.

I think the only way this would work is if SEVERAL such stores like Apple and a few others went in together and all lined the midtown mile or somewhere close. Its not going to work if there are only 2 or 3 stores open. people will only come if there are SEVERAL stores open. Atlantic Station would not have worked if there had been just 3 stores open. It took several attractions to get people out of their car and walk around to shop. Plus people in this city are too fat and lazy to get out of their car and walk more than 2 blocks to shop. There are not that many parking options in Midtown like there are with Lenox Mall or Atlantic Station. Midtown will be the way we all dream it to be in time....

[citywalker]

Originally Posted by scania

You make a solid point!!!
P.S. That Midtown Mile report is a bunch of crap. There isn't 1 retail store that has survived in Midtown. There simply isn't enough people to support these stores.

Ummm...would you like to tell that to YES, Ligne Roset, SPACE, CVS, Bulthaup, Pedini, Outwrite, Candlebar, Select, Uomo, Utrecht, Barrelman, T Mobile, Eyedeology, the furniture store in 805 Juniper whose name escapes me, the UPS store, EModa, Publix, Office Depot, Hollywood Tans, the Solarium, James Madison Salon, Helmet, 3 different Starbucks, Caribou, Twelve Boutique and Flowers, FLOR, Drew Lewis which I thought would close but is now expanding to a bigger space on Peachtree, several banks including Wachovia and Bank of America that waited for two years in a trailer and is now open on Peachtree again not to mention more than 30 restaurants that I will name if you wish, Chocolate Pink, cafes, bars, cleaners, other salons/nail places, a scooter store, Mac's Liquor, Insurrection, H. Stockton etc not all on Peachtree but only 3 blocks max. from it that have all survived quite well... They may not all be glamorous but hey it is retail that people use and need. Only recently that all this new retail space came online right when the economy tanked have we had empty storefronts most of which in new buildings because most retail is halted right now. Even when other cities can't get new businesses to open we have 7 new restaurants opening soon and an italian kitchen store opening and probably more I do not know of. I think that is pretty impressive at this time. Wait until the economy improves and you will see these spaces fill up one by one. If you don't build the space out of fear NO ONE can occupy it. I'd rather have the nice, new buildings with a little empty space for now than a mad rush to try and build some space when stores want to open and have no where to go but Atlantic Station...

[citywalker]

Originally Posted by joecool

I think the only way this would work is if SEVERAL such stores like Apple and a few others went in together and all lined the midtown mile or somewhere close. Its not going to work if there are only 2 or 3 stores open. people will only come if there are SEVERAL stores open. Atlantic Station would not have worked if there had been just 3 stores open. It took several attractions to get people out of their car and walk around to shop. Plus people in this city are too fat and lazy to get out of their car and walk more than 2 blocks to shop. There are not that many parking options in Midtown like there are with Lenox Mall or Atlantic Station. Midtown will be the way we all dream it to be in time....

I think several stores opening together with hopefully a few larger anchors would work very well....hopefully 1010 and Twelve Midtown with all that space open is/will work with retailers to open a lot at once and make it a destination block then Viewpoint and Spire can do the same not to mention the two retail add ons at 999 and Campanile and bing bang boom we have 10 blocks of retail! Just be patient y'all. I have lived in Midtown for four years and it is already very different and much fuller and more walkable than before and it is only getting better!

[NativeAtlantan]

Originally Posted by citywalker

Ummm...would you like to tell that to YES, Ligne Roset, SPACE, CVS, Bulthaup, Pedini, Outwrite, Candlebar, Select, Eyedeology, the furniture store in 805 Juniper whose name escapes me, the UPS store, EModa, Publix, Office Depot, Hollywood Tans, the Solarium, James Madison Salon, Helmet, 3 Starbucks, Caribou, the flower shop next door, FLOR, Drew Lewis which I thought would close but is not expanding to a bigger space on Peachtree, several banks including Wachovia and Bank of America that waited for two years in a trailer and is now open on Peachtree again not to mention more than 30 restaurants that I will name if you wish, Chocolate Pink, cafes, bars, cleaners, other salons/nail places, a scooter store, Mac's Liquor, Insurrection, H. Stockton etc not all on Peachtree but only 3 blocks max. from it that have all survived quite well... They may not all be glamorous but hey it is retail that people use and need. Only recently that all this new retail space came online right when the economy tanked have we had empty storefronts most of which in new buildings because most retail is halted right now. Even when other cities can't get new businesses to open we have 7 new restaurants opening soon and an italian kitchen store opening and probably more I do not know of. I think that is pretty impressive at this time. Wait until the economy improves and you will see these spaces fill up one by one. If you don't build the space out of fear NO ONE can occupy it. I'd rather have the nice, new buildings with a little empty space for now than a mad rush to try and build some space when stores want to open and have no where to go but Atlantic Station...

nicely played

[NativeAtlantan]

it seems to me that the Midtown Alliance is trying to coordinate all of this such that there is as much critical mass coming online all at once to try and maximize the immediate impact and generate as much momentum as possible which will really kickstart whatever remaining space is still left to be built out and leased....that's the impression I am getting.

It doesn't appear to me that it's a completely UNcoordinated effort, which is smart, in my humble opinion.

[sevensixtwo]

Originally Posted by scania

You make a solid point!!!
P.S. That Midtown Mile report is a bunch of crap. There isn't 1 retail store that has survived in Midtown. There simply isn't enough people to support these stores.

Yeah, I hardly think the MM website is the place to find data on the MM.