REBusiness Online, Kroger on Atlanta BeltLine to be Part of New Mixed-Use Development
ATLANTA — Kroger’s Atlanta Division and New City LLC plan to transform an existing Kroger store on Ponce de Leon Avenue in Atlanta as part of a mixed-use development along the Atlanta BeltLine. The new development, known as 725 Ponce, will include a new 60,000 square-foot Kroger below 360,000 square feet of Class A loft office space. The office space will be delivered in a similar fashion as the adjacent Ponce City Market, which is currently more than 90 percent leased. The building will include open floor plates with exposed 13-foot ceilings, divided light windows, an industrial aesthetic and multiple stair-stepped outdoor terraces. The development team has hired Aileen Almassy of Cushman & Wakefield to lease the office space. Below the footprint of the project, more than 900 new parking spaces will be constructed to serve future office tenants, as well as to the general public on nights and weekends. The new Kroger prototype store will feature a dedicated entrance to the Atlanta BeltLine and replace the existing Kroger store, which was built in 1986 and known to locals as “Murder Kroger.” New City will be working with the owners of the adjacent Ford Factory to create a new dedicated BeltLine entrance to the building, public breezeway and new BeltLine-facing retail space inside the existing structure as part of the overall redevelopment. New City, which was founded by former Jamestown senior vice president Jim Irwin, and Kroger’s Atlanta Division will begin demolishing the existing Kroger store this spring.