Atlanta Stockade: redevelopment plan unveiled for Grant Park treasure

Redevelopment plans unveiled today for a storied Grant Park property with roots in the late 1800s could be cause for celebration for historic preservationists across Atlanta.

Perched on 4 acres over Interstate 20, and highlighted by a gothic-style, castle-like structure that once served as Atlanta’s prison, the Atlanta Stockade complex has officially sold to a team lead by Urban Realty Partners and RAF Capital, officials announced in a press release.

Developers say the “Grant Park treasure” will be christened “GlenCastle,” an adaptive-reuse project that will pay homage to the site’s historic past, lending a contrast to Fuqua Development’s Kroger-anchored, suburban-style node next door.

Plans call for morphing the Atlanta Stockade into a “creative office campus” with three distinct, loft-style buildings: The Forge, The Stockade, and The Stable.

Per the release, “The GlenCastle team is currently applying for historic tax credits for the buildings, and it is committed to preserving the integrity of each building while integrating current needs of creative office space.”

Maybe there’s hope for what’s left of Atlanta’s historic built environment after all?

Remaining images: Hailey Realty

The redevelopment will be heavy on work space and possibly slots for restaurants, but nothing residential. It’s meant to compliment the hundreds of apartments and homes rising next door, along Memorial Drive, and elsewhere in close proximity.

The smallest piece (The Forge) will offer 7,300 square feet that could be used as restaurant space, and ditto for The Stable (25,000 square feet), officials said.

Meanwhile, the largest component—The Stockade, the taller, turreted structure from 1896—will bring 38,000 square feet of creative office use.

Developers are trumpeting proximity to the Beltline’s future Southside Trail, existing Glenwood Park retail, and interstates.

No sales price for the property was disclosed. It contains not just the former prison but a large building that formerly housed stables and a blacksmith shop.

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Atlanta Stockade factoids:

• On site, inmates tended a prison farm and grew “onions, potatoes, corn, peas, turnips and cabbage, as well as pork and fodder”

• The site still contains the former Goth-style prison, blacksmith shop and stables, which are all on the National Register of Historic Buildings

• After the prison was relocated, Atlanta’s Board of Education occupied the building and used the Stockades as a warehouse

• The land was eventually donated to FCS Ministries, a nonprofit helping impoverished neighborhoods, in the ‘80s. FCS converted the Stockade to apartments and used the stable building as their offices.

Source: SPR Atlanta

• Old Stockade in Grant Park an Adaptive-Reuse Dream? [Curbed Atlanta]