As part of the selection process for the 2011 Curbed Atlanta Awards, we reached out to professionals and experts in the worlds of real estate development & investment, architecture, community development and preservation to solicit their well-informed opinions on projects and programs from 2011 that are worthy of a Curbed Award. Here now is one such award bestowed in collaboration with Friend of Curbed Steve Martin, a veteran commercial real estate advisor and investor and Principal of SDM Partners.
The significance of Jamestown finally closing on the former City Hall East building- and moving toward bringing a (fingers crossed) Chelsea Market-grade place to live, work, play, stay and eat to Atlanta- is in the eyes of the beholder. The complexity of the deal and the fact that something this big got done in times this challenged alone make it one of the most important real estate stories of the year in Atlanta, if not the last ten. The project is a mega-boon for fans of sustainability and the preservation and adaptive reuse of buildings best described by the phrase, "they don't build them like that anymore." Even though the real work has just begun, the transformative effect Ponce City Market will have on the Poncey-Highland and Old 4th Ward neighborhoods is difficult to overstate. And the development has the potential to become one of Atlanta's top destinations for locals and tourists alike. That said, the renovation of the project will be an epic slog, and the economy will need to find some kind of equilibrium with an upward orientation for the project to come together as envisioned and fire on all cylinders. But if there's any company that can pull it off, it's Jamestown and its giant pot of 'Dusseldorf dentist' money. We'll be pulling for them.
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