Atlanta — Paces Properties is developing the project, which will be complete in the fall of 2014.
Atlanta — What many native Atlantans may know as Tyler Perry’s former studio at 99 Krog Street will soon be home to Krog Street Market, offering the metro area a revitalized urban landscape equipped with a farmer’s market, as well as additional retail and restaurant space.
Located in historic Inman Park on the east side of Atlanta, the 30,150-square-foot project will be situated on approximately 9.5 acres. Inman Park is Atlanta’s first suburb, founded circa 1890. The approximately $70 million development will be built amid the area’s historic architecture and colonial homes. Krog Street Market will also be close to Atlanta’s BeltLine, enabling retailers to attract customers from the many runners and bikers who frequent the multi-use trails.
Atlanta-based Paces Properties Inc., which specializes in developing and managing multifamily properties and specialty retail centers in the metro area, purchased the 1920s warehouse. The company is preserving the brick, sawtooth building to further enhance the development.
Favorable demographics
The average household income in 2011 within three miles of the Krog Street Market development site was approximately $83,949, according to SRS Real Estate Partners, which is leasing the project. Also, the area has approximately 70,354 households with a population of 152,452.
“The Inman Park market has proven itself to be sufficiently able to pay for those amenities, they just don’t exist for the most part,” says W. Merritt Lancaster, principal and chief investment officer of Paces Properties.
Another reason the company targeted this area is that it falls into the new evolutionary pattern of big cities, which features a growing number of residents moving back to the urban core.
“We started looking at a model for smaller in-town neighborhoods — Inman Park, Virginia Highlands, Druid Hills and Emory,” says Lancaster. “Our model was to find locations first, then let those sites become what we felt like they wanted to be. Krog Street is really the first example of our business model, which is that.”
The area surrounding Krog Street Market has a reputation for being a “foodie” place, thanks to chef Kevin Rathbun’s restaurants (Rathbun’s, Kevin Rathbun Steak and Krog Bar), all of which are located along Krog Street. The development team is working to preserve the rich heritage of the area by bringing a revitalized farmer’s market to the project.
“We hired a local food expert to help us identify what categories we needed to be filling and what the top three candidates were for those categories,” Lancaster says.
The retail portion of the development will feature smaller stalls for the 12,000-square-foot farmer’s market, further complemented by four major restaurants. Three restaurants have already committed to the space, but the names are still not being released.
A housing element
In addition to Krog Street Market’s food focus, the overall project will also feature a multifamily component to fill a void in the apartment sector. Lancaster says that the three-bedroom market is grossly underserved in town, so there’s an opportunity for the company to capitalize on the lack of apartments that target families.
The final unit count has not been finalized, but Lancaster projects that 65 percent of the multifamily complex will be one-bedroom units, 25 percent will be two-bedroom apartments and the remaining 10 percent will be three-bedroom apartments. Paces Properties has yet to decide if it is going to lead the development of the apartment community, or if it is going to hire another company.
“It’s a new development, but it’s also an adaptive reuse,” explains Lancaster. “There’s a demand for restaurant and local food-centric, small business retail, and that’s what we will create is a center for that.”
Because the city has exhibited demand for a new project like Krog Street Market, Paces Properties wants to deliver a high-class product to the market. Restaurant space is expected to be delivered this coming spring, while the entire project is slated for a fall 2014 opening.
“The end product thus far has been the result of not only our ideas, but those of the neighborhood, Atlanta Urban Design Commission, planning department and the city too,” reflects Lancaster.
— Brittany Biddy