Business & Retail Briefs

The Kroger supermarket at 725 Ponce de Leon Ave. hopes to finally shake its “Murder Kroger” nickname with the unveiling of a new pedestrian/bike ramp to the Atlanta BeltLine Eastside Trail, a colorful new mural and other revamps to the store. The unfortunate nickname has stuck to the store since a homicide in the parking lot more than 20 years ago. A recent grand re-opening event gave BeltLine Kroger the chance to show off its extensive interior and exterior revamp, including installation of a bike repair station, bike racks, doggy watering station, new sidewalks, landscaping, installation of a water quality pond and repaved parking lot. A colorful mural depicting the history and continued evolution of the area surrounding the Eastside Trail has also been created by Savannah College of Art and Design students Jing Li, Hannah Li and Sena Kwon.

The price tag for the new Atlanta Falcons and soccer stadium has gone up again, this time by $200 million. The Georgia World Congress Center Authority board announced in December that the price of the retractable-roof had increased bringing the total budget for the Downtown stadium to $1.4 billion.

An Atlanta developer wants to build new hotel and o ce space at Technology Square in Midtown, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle, Bob Voyles, principal and CEO of Seven Oaks Co., envisions a mid-rise urban campus at Centergy North, a roughly 4-acre site at Spring and 8th streets the company has owned in a joint venture since 2005. Plans include 8- to 10-story buildings with up to 1.5 million square feet of office, hotel and potentially retail space to serve the city’s booming startup community.

The Atlanta BeltLine Partnership has appointed Chuck Meadows, right, as the organization’s new executive director. Meadows grew up in Washington Park, an Atlanta BeltLine Westside neighborhood before graduating from Morehouse College and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He will step down from his post as President of Jim Adams LLC, an urban agriculture social enterprise, and become chairman of the board. Meadows has also served at the Metro Atlanta Chamber as vice president for public policy.

The SkyView Ferris Wheel will be around for at least another year following a vote by the Atlanta City Council in December. The council voted unanimously to renew the agreement that allows the 20-story Ferris wheel to operate in Downtown across from Centennial Olympic Park through Dec. 31, 2015.

Stoddard’s, a shooting range and retail store, is now open at 485 Bishop St. near Atlantic Station. Owned by former real estate attorneys Michael Halbreich and Ken Baye, the 34,000 square foot facility includes 24 shooting lanes, 6,500 square foot firearms store, 1,000 square foot Beretta-branded store and an on-site training classroom.

The Atlanta City Council approved $1.5 million from the Economic Opportunity Fund to bring payment technology company Worldpay to the city. The relocation of the company headquarters is expected to create an estimated 1,266 new jobs.

Students from Georgia Tech presented a final report on their revitalization plan for the Memorial Drive corridor in December at city hall. The students in Mike Dobbins’ urban design class spent the fall semester studying the road, which stretches from Downtown to Stone Mountain. Atlanta City Councilmember Natalyn Archibong, who championed the work being done by the Tech students, hopes the report will be approved as a Living Centers Initiative, a program of the Atlanta Regional Commission. The “Imagine Memorial” project looks at ways to improve traffic flow, pedestrian use, safety and selected potential properties for demolition or purchase that could be used as park space or as traffic solutions.

Comcast has announced it will offer “gigabit Internet” – or ultra-fast Internet service – for businesses in metro Atlanta. The announcement comes on the heels of both AT&T and Google committing to offering faster Internet service in the area.

Sarah Cyrus Home, a marketplace of consignments, is now open at 1194 Huff Road. The 6,000 square foot showroom combines rare antiques and designer brand names at a fraction of the retail price. For more, visit sarahcyrus.com.

Office buildings participate in collection drive

Downtown Green Source, a program of Central Atlanta Progress and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, recently joined efforts with the Downtown office community for a successful collection drive that generated 7.563 tons of recycled office supplies.

Downtown Green Source partnered with LiveThriveAtlanta, Recycling Management Resources, and Five Star Shredding to host a “Clean Out Your Office” recycling drive. Seven property management companies offered 12 locations in nine buildings for the drive. Partnering property management companies include Parkway Realty Services, Boxer Property, Cousins Properties Incorporated, Fairlead Commercial Real Estate, Jones Lang LaSalle, RB Management Services and Lincoln Property Company.

“We had so much participation from our 260|270 Peachtree Tenants. Some offices held internal competitions, cleaned out storage areas, and truly took advantage of the on-site shredding truck services,” said Leslie Pigue, Marketing Director with RB Management Services, Inc. at 260|270 Peachtree.

The nine participating Downtown office buildings included Peachtree Center, The Hurt Building, One Ninety One Peachtree Tower, American Cancer Society Center, M. Rich Building, Woodruff Volunteer Center, The Loudermilk Center, 260|270 Peachtree and 55 Allen Plaza.

Recycling Management Resources placed bins at various locations throughout the office buildings for the collection of non-secure office supplies. Five Star Shredding was on-site to securely recycle documents.

“We’re pleased with the impressive results of the Downtown recycling drive,” said A.J. Robinson, CAP/ADID President. “The Downtown community has proven once again that it can accomplish a great deal through collaboration, and we are grateful to our project partners, property management companies and Downtown property owners for their commitment to sustainability.”