Sustainability & Historic Preservation Guided Vibrant Development of Atlanta’s Ponce City Market

Ponce City Market. Atlanta, Georgia.

For nearly a century, the building occupied by Ponce City Market has been one of the largest (by volume) in the Southeastern United States. Nimmons, Carr and Wright Architects originally designed the building in 1925 to house the distribution, retail and offices spaces for Sears, Roebuck and Co. The building is located in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward neighborhood, adjacent to Atlanta’s BeltLine, and is on land that once contained Ponce de Leon springs and later an amusement park. The city of Atlanta purchased the building in 1991, renaming it City Hall East, to house several public works departments. The large building was underused during this time and the city sold it to Jamestown Properties in 2010. Jamestown is known for its highly successful Chelsea Market in Manhattan and they prepared to repurpose the building- making it one of the greatest historic rehabilitation projects in the country. The anchor of the building would be a large food hall to rival Pike Place Market in Seattle, The Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco and Chelsea Market in New York City. Today the building has ties to several James Beard Award-winning chefs and houses artisan chefs, local food purveyors and highlights the foods and flavors of Atlanta. Jamestown worked with S9 Architecture to create a vibrant community space and a model for urban development. The building houses retail, restaurants and offices with the Flat’s amenity-rich residences occupying the upper floors of the east and west wings. The roof has panoramic views and contains an eighteen-hole mini-golf course and an amusement park. The 2.1 million square foot building is on a 16-acre lot and reopened as Ponce City Market on August 25, 2014. The highly popular development continues to expand and is a hub for residents, neighbors and visitors to work, gather and play. Mailchimp, AthenaHealth, Google Fiber and HowStuffWorks are a few of the building’s major tenants.

In addition to its careful renovations honoring its past, a major focus has been on sustainability. This is seen throughout the development in features such as: bicycle facilities, native plantings, storm water management, high-efficiency plumbing, recaptured rainwater and high-efficiency HVAC systems. Per their website, Ponce City Market states, “Guided by the principle of responsibility, Jamestown has incorporated sustainability in each facet of the ownership and operation of Ponce City Market. As the largest adaptive reuse project in the Southeast, thousands of tons of materials were recycled or reused in its development, saving the same amount of energy as 12,501 trips around the equator at 30 mpg, compared to constructing the same amount of new space. By utilizing energy-saving and environmentally friendly features throughout the property, Ponce City Market offers tenants a space that is sustainable and efficient.” Ponce City Market has been awarded LEED Gold Certification, as well as LEED Core and Shell, LEED BD+C for Homes and LEED for Commercial Interiors, for the Jamestown corporate headquarters.

In 2016 the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Further, per their website, “The National Trust for Historic Preservation recognizesPonce City Market as “History in the Making” and part of a plan ‘to move Atlanta forward while maintaining and emphasizing the city’s unique history and culture.” The development has received several awards, including: 2018 Office Building of the Year by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), 2016 Global Award for Excellence from the Urban Land Institute, 2016 Project of the Year from the Urban Land Institute of Atlanta, Golden Shoe Award from PEDS and 2018 Outstanding Building of the Year (TOBY) Award. Overall, the development of Ponce City Market is an excellent example of historic preservation, adaptive reuse and sustainable building practices used to create a vibrant new urban setting for the community.