Ponce City Market

Ponce City Market

Ponce City Market is a historic building in Atlanta, located where the BeltLine crosses Ponce de Leon Avenue in the Old Fourth Ward where that neighborhood touches the Virginia Highland, Poncey-Highland and Midtown neighborhoods. The 2,100,000-square-foot (200,000 m²) building, one of the largest by volume in the Southeast United States, was used by Sears, Roebuck and Co. from 1926–1987 and later by the City of Atlanta as "City Hall East". The building's lot is 16 acres (65,000 m²) large.

The City sold the property for $27 million to Jamestown, Jamestown, a private-equity group, on July 11, 2011.^[1] Jamestown, which also invested in the redevelopment of the White Provision retail and restaurant complex in West Midtown, is bankrolling 180-million-dollar plans by developer Green Street Properties to convert it into a retail complex with national and local retail anchors, restaurants, boutiques and offices, to be followed by residential development.^[2] In a July 2011 interview, Michael Phillips, managing director of Jamestown, said that Jamestown is focused on Ponce City Market becoming the fourth nationally relevant food hall in the U.S., alongside Pike Place in Seattle, the Ferry Building in San Francisco, and Jamestown's own Chelsea Market in New York. Jamestown also plans rooftop gardens where local restaurants can grow food.^[3] Jamestown plans to complete renovations by early 2014 and then have the building added to the National Register of Historic Places.

It is hoped that the new development, along with the new adjacent BeltLine trail and Historic Fourth Ward Park, will stitch together the four neighborhoods that meet where it is located and revitalize the Ponce de Leon Avenue corridor.^[4][5]

History

Ponce City Banner with old City Hall East sign still up, July 2011

The building was built on the site of Ponce de Leon Springs, later the whites-only Ponce de Leon amusement park.

• From 1926-1979 it was a Sears, Roebuck and Co. retail store, warehouse and regional office^[6] The Atlanta regional headquarters was closely linked to Sears' efforts to capture the market of Southern famers through the Sears Agricultural Foundation:
  • From August 1926 until October 1928, the Foundation hosted a radio show, broadcast from the Atlanta Sears tower called “Dinner Bell R.F.D.”. R.F.D. stood for the club "Radio Farmers' Democracy. The show aired on WSB radio between noon and 1 pm three times a week, featuring old-time musicians and string bands^[7]
  • Sears held a farmer's market at the back of the property starting in May 1930 through New Year's Day 1947^[7]
  • In 1939, the market hosted the First Georgia Clay Products Show, which garnered an audience of 5,000^[7]
  • The market established partnerships with local 4-H Clubs and Future Farmers of America clubs
• In 1979 the retail store closed but the building continue operating as a Sears regional office until 1987.
• In May, 1990^[8] the city of Atlanta bought the building for $12 million, with plans to place 2,000 police and fire employees there, and later rent space out to county, state, and federal agencies. Only one floor was ever occupied by the Atlanta police in addition to a ground-floor art gallery.
• From 1995-1999 the Southeastern Flower Show was held here.^[9]
• The building was closed to the public on March 29, 2010 and remains closed pending development by Jamestown.

External links

• Official website

History

• Old pictures of the Sears building
• "Largest Building in the South Opens on Ponce de Leon Avenue ("This Day in History" series)", pbaonline (Public Broadcasting Atlanta
• Jerry R. Hancock, Jr., Dixie Progress: Sears, Roebuck & Co. and How it became an Icon in Southern Culture, Georgia State University - Photos of Sears Farmers' Market 1931 (see p. 61)
• "A Living History of Ponce City Market" - video remembrances by local residents of the historic building

Redevelopment

• Robbie Brown, "Ambitious Plans for a Building Where Sears Served Atlanta", New York Times, August 16, 2011
• "The lost world of City Hall East: the mysteries inside Atlanta’s largest abandoned building", Creative Loafing, April 19, 2010 - slideshow of pictures inside the City Hall East of April 2010

References

1. ^ "Mayor Signs Closing Documents on Sale of City Hall East", pbaonline, July 1, 2011
2. ^ "Slideshow: Jamestown reveals Ponce City Market", Atlanta Business Journal, June 29, 2011
3. ^ "Jamestown’s Michael Phillips on Ponce City Market", ATL Food Chatter (Atlanta magazine blog), July 18, 2011
4. ^ "Landmark Sears building still faces hurdles", Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 1, 2010
5. ^ Ken Edelstein, "Green Street, Jamestown hope to close City Hall East deal this month", Green Building Chronicle, 2011-03-03
6. ^ "Timeline: Old Sears building, once a boom, then a bust", Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 1, 2010
7. ^ ^{a b c} Jerry R. Hancock, Jr., Dixie Progress: Sears, Roebuck & Co. and How it became an Icon in Southern Culture, Georgia State University
8. ^ "National Notebook: Atlanta; Sears Center bought by city", The New York Times, June 2, 1991
9. ^ http://www.tripsmarter.com/travelinfo/atlanta/events/southeastern-flower-show