Saturday Night Bash Ushers In Ponce City Market

Just as the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood is experiencing a major upgrade and revival, so is the enormous brick building that serves as its northern border.

Within a few years, the old, between North and Ponce de Leon avenues, will become one of the star attractions in all of Atlanta.

Saturday night presents the chance to come out and celebrate the fact that ground will soon break on the major redevelopment of this site. It’s new life: Ponce City Market, a top attraction for neighbors and tourists alike, with major stores, boutiques, a food hall and top restaurants, plus residential and office space.

“Party at Ponce” is the name of the Saturday night party that will bid farewell to the old and usher in the new chapter for the site.

Some of the stars of Atlanta who either stir our souls with their great music or please our palates with their superb culinary skills are on tap for Ponce City Market’s official debut party.

The entertainment lineup for Party at Ponce features the folk-rocking Indigo Girls, versatile singer-songwriter Shawn Mullins, and jazz-blues vocalist Francine Reed.

“I’m looking forward to it,” said Reed, a Candler Park neighbor who is recently back after another performing tour with Lyle Lovett. “Sounds like it is going to be a great party. You know, I’ve recorded with Shawn Mullins, so I’m looking forward to seeing Shawn again.”

Bite-sized gourmet specialties will be cooked up by an impressive lineup of top Atlanta chefs. This is your chance to meet and greet the likes of:

• Kevin Rathbun of Rathbun’s and Rathbun Steak
• Anne Quatrano of Bacchanalia
• Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene
• Shaun Doty of Yeah! Burger
• Jay Swift of 4th & Swift
• Hugh Acheson of Empire State South
• Ford Fry of JCT Kitchen
• Duane Nutter of One Flew South
• Brian Jones of the Ritz-Carlton Atlanta
• Joe Truex of Watershed.

Most of the party action will center around the old Sears loading docks that face North Avenue (backside of the building).

Everyone’s invited to the 7-11pm bash. A ticket price of $90 includes the eclectic bounty of gourmet edibles and live entertainment, as well as a chance to take a tour of the old building before it begins its transformation to city showplace and tourist destination. Those who opt to take the 15-minute tour will step into the big old freight elevator — a cool throwback experience in itself — and be transported to a couple of upper floors in the 10-floor building. When purchasing a ticket online, patrons can request specific tour times.

For more than half a century, the 2.1 million-square-foot brick monstrosity at Ponce de Leon Avenue and Glen Iris Drive served as a regional headquarters for Sears, Roebuck & Co. About 20 years ago, the 1926 building became City Hall East, but the city of Atlanta reportedly only utilized about 35 percent of the space.

For Amy Ray, one half of the internationally-loved Indigo Girls, the giant old Sears building has sentimental significance. Her mother worked in the building back when it was still Sears, Roebuck.

“Indigo Girls always love to play events that bring the community together, and this is a very special one,” Ray said. “We’ll get to play in a historic building and we’ll be benefiting two awesome organizations that are all about community-building.”

Proceeds from Saturday’s event will benefit Atlanta BeltLine Partnership and Georgia Organics. Ponce City Market is situated along the BeltLine.

Saturday’s soiree is “an important time to demarcate our new ownership and kick off the development,” said Michael Phillips, managing director of Jamestown Properties, which in August announced its $27 million purchase of the site and a $180 million plan to redevelop and revitalize the property.

The project has been billed “the most comprehensive adaptive reuse project in Atlanta history.” Along with other partners, Jamestown has created a plan for the property to become “a vibrant urban centerpiece” in the way that Pike Place Market is for Seattle. The plans include a wide variety of residential and office units, as well as about 300,000 square feet of retail (from nationally known to local-owned shops). Also included: restaurants and a food hall that focus on regional foods.

“For many of us who grew up in Atlanta, this building has loomed as a backdrop in our lives,” Phillips said. “It hasn’t been a dimensional part of our lives since it was Sears. Now that’s about to change.”

The property “is about to become real and dimensional again,” he said. “The party marks the starting point to the next cycle of its life.”

“I think the BeltLine and our position adjacent to it proves to make [this redevelopment] the most dynamic economic generator for Atlanta in the next decade,” Phillips said.

He’s very much looking forward to hanging out with friends on Saturday night and enjoying the cooler night airs of the onset of October.

“These are the great opportunities in our lives,” he said. “In all the cities we do real estate in, we want the development to be of the, to really represent that place and region. Atlanta is a very personal place for those of us who have grown up here, so what better way to kick off” this major rebirth “than with the great music and great chefs of Atlanta.”

If you go: Party At Ponce, 7-11pm Saturday, Oct 1., at Ponce City Market, 675 Ponce de Leon Ave., NE; $90 includes food and entertainment, but alcohol is sold separately. Tours are limited, so buy your ticket early to secure your tour time. For more information and tickets: http://www.partyatponce.com, www.empiretickets.com. To keep tabs on the progress of the redevelopment, there’s a blog at www.poncecitymarket.com