Best of Atlanta: Best Shopping District
Ponce City Market Cityscape, Critics
After more than a year of touch-and-go negotiations, City Hall East was finally sold to a developer this summer and its new owner wasted no time in renaming the 2-million-square-foot building Ponce City Market. In the middle of a ruptured economy, Cobb County-based Jamestown Properties plans to spend $180 million over the next three years in hopes of creating a world-class food hall, a regional shopping destination, and sought-after office and loft space. Why are we so optimistic? Because it’s done it before, with Chelsea Market, a 99-year-old former Nabisco factory in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District that now houses dozens of restaurants, boutiques and top-tier food shops, as well as the Food Network studios where “Iron Chef” is filmed. The company has since floated a few similarly ambitious ideas for PCM, including an organic garden on the roof, an indoor farmers market and even amusement park rides that would enable riders to look 200 feet down onto Ponce de Leon Avenue at night. Sounds good to us. 675 Ponce de Leon Ave. poncecitymarket.com.