Ponce developer plans enclave for thinkers
By KEVIN DUFFY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/26/07
In 15th century Italy, the powerful Medici family supported artists and scholars during a period of great cultural flowering — the Renaissance.
Now, developer Emory Morsberger is thinking along the same lines with his huge City Hall East redevelopment project in Midtown.
An artist's rendering of the main entrance to Ponce Park, envisioned as a wide piazza on North Avenue in Midtown. |
Morsberger wants to attract leaders in science, academics and the arts to the mixed-use project he's spearheading, Ponce Park. So he's proposing creating the "Medici Center" at Ponce Park — housing for thinkers.
"We're going to superheat their interaction to create new ideas," Morsberger said at a recent meeting of the Urban Land Institute, a nonprofit organization of land use professionals and businesspeople. "Maybe they'll think of a different way to cure AIDS."
Medici Center residents would work at the various universities in the metro area, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and at arts organizations.
Morsberger, an Emory University history graduate, said he foresees 300 to 500 teachers, scientists and artists — some retired — living permanently, or for a short time, at Medici Center.
They could rent, use it as a hotel or own; some might pay below-market rates, he said. Details are still being worked out.
Last year, Ponce Park LLC, a consortium of developers, including the Morsberger Group, bought the old Sears, Roebuck and Co. store and distribution center on Ponce de Leon Avenue for $33 million.
Roughly 1,000 city employees are still using the building, one of the Southeast's largest at nearly 2 million square feet. They are scheduled to move out in September 2008.
Most are police and fire employees who will head to a new public safety building under construction on Garnett Street downtown. The rest will go to other locations, according to the city.
The developers plan to take control of the property in October 2008. As early as 2010, the first units could be for sale, Morsberger said.
Redevelopment of the Sears building is the showiest portion of a much larger transformation of the area bounded by Ponce, Glen Iris Drive, Ralph McGill Boulevard and the old Norfolk Southern rail line.
The bigger picture includes creating a park of 20 to 40 acres with a small lake. Parcels for the park are still being put together.
Across from the Sears site, Lane Development and Investment LLC will build Ponce Park South on North Avenue. That project will contain approximately 415 residential units and 12,500 square feet of retail.
South on Glen Iris, Wood Partners is building more than 300 apartments and condos at the site of the old National Linen Service building, which was razed.
At the Sears site, structures that were added to the original 1926 monolith will be demolished, and six new buildings are planned. One is slated to be 14 stories of living space on the proposed Beltline, the historic 22-mile-long loop that someday may provide intown rail service.
The main entrance to Ponce Park will be a wide piazza on North Avenue, big enough for motorists and pedestrians. Parking for 2,000 vehicles will be built, but only about 100 parked vehicles will be visible from the street, said David Laube, Morsberger Group vice president.
Ponce Park and Ponce Park South — together, close to a $500 million investment when all is done — will end up being home to approximately 3,000 new residents. Other nearby projects could boost that figure to more than 5,000. "We envision a number of Nobel laureates living here," said Morsberger, utterly serious.
