The rebirth of historic Pratt-Pullman Yard in Kirkwood is going to be the focal point of an upcoming documentary.
Director Raphael Sbarge, also known as an actor from films such as Risky Business, is chronicling the rich history, present plans, and projected future of the 27-acre complex that’s recently been used as the worn-down, gritty setting for action movies.
The property is slated for a $200 million redevelopment led by Pullman Yard owner Adam Rosenfelt, head of development and film production group Atomic Entertainment, as well as his wife and partner Maureen Meulen. He’s been a producer for films such as “Mr. Brooks” and “Waiting...”
Rosenfelt’s plan involves turning the land, as well as the rusted, vandalized warehouses that have been used as, among other things, a factory for World War I accouterments and a train depot, into a “creative city.”
That is, “a mixed-use using entertainment as its anchor tenant,” he said this week. “Thematically, we’re like the industrial revolution meets the digital revolution.”
Considering the place has been used for movie production, and was acquired last summer by a movie producer who wants the development to become a new movie production and entertainment hub, it’s only fitting that another moviemaker would make a movie about it.
Sbarge is beginning his project by piecing together a four-minute, interview-heavy film about Pullman Yard’s historical significance, as well as its potential to galvanize Atlanta’s creative community. It could be ready in the next month or two, he said.
His team interviewed more than a dozen people about the property on Wednesday alone. As we swung by Wednesday, Sheffield Hale, head of the Atlanta History Center, had just been mic’d up to give his take.
Sbarge, behind (most of) the cameras, asked Hale about the historic preservation efforts in Atlanta, “which is not famous for keeping its old buildings.”
Responded Hale: “Atlanta has torn down an enormous amount of its historical background, and you cannot blame that on [General] Sherman.” He’s glad to see the site will be fully utilized in years to come, rather than scrapped and built over, he said.
Plus, Rosenfelt told Curbed, Pullman Yard recently earned a spot on the city’s historic registry, and was even turned into its own new historic district.
“As of this past November, this is the Pratt-Pullman Landmark District, which allows us to work off our own theme of creating a city within a city,” he said. “It provides us with our own set of rules, regulations, ordinances, [such as] height restrictions, density requirements, and parking requirements that are unique and singular to our district.”
Sbarge said he thinks people will be pleased to know the project won’t be carried out by typical money-grubbing developers.
“[Rosenfelt and Meulen] came in and embraced it because of the history; they’re interested in the history; they’re interested in preserving the history,” he said. “They’re creative people, who are not classic developers who use the plow-and-burn approach, which I think the people will be really happy to know.”
Jack Pyburn, a longtime preservationist with Docomomo, is the chief Lord Aeck Sargent architect for the project. He was also interviewed for the film.
Pyburn will play a crucial role in the design of the hotel, restaurants, retail, and office space, and the film studio.
Each bay door in one of the larger structures, Rosenfelt said, will eventually host its own food and beverage concept in the lobby of the hotel to-be; each is also planned to have an outdoor component, next to a public lawn area.
“It’s like if you took a food hall and put it into a hotel,” Rosenfelt said. “Everything’s going to be meant to be historic, almost like you’re in a 1920s Grand Central Station.”
Construction on the Pullman Yard rebirth is scheduled to begin in June, provided that the city’s permitting department keeps the process chugging along.
Rosenfelt said his team is in talks with tenants, but he wasn’t quite ready to divulge specifics.
And, if all goes well with this film, Sbarge could make another, longer project to document the development’s progression and local impact.
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