Atlantic Station - History

History

Atlantic Station is located on the site of the Atlantic Steel mill, which opened in 1901. The steel mill was nearly closed in the mid-1970s, but it remained nominally operational primarily to avoid the huge costs it would have required to remediate the soil contamination present after years of operation.

Developer Jim Jacoby, who also redeveloped Florida's Marineland, began putting the project together in 1997 when his company became the property contractor of the land. The redevelopment of the land into what is now Atlantic Station was financed largely by private investment, but was heavily supplemented by a special tax district to pay for city tax bonds for public utilities (streets, sidewalks, and sewers). The development was originally planned to include 15,000,000 square feet (1,400,000 m2) of retail, office, residential space as well as 11 acres (45,000 m2) of public parks. Its size encouraged the Postal Service to award the neighborhood its own ZIP code: 30363.

Atlantic Station was designed with energy efficiency in mind and many of the buildings are LEED certified. Additionally, the project was developed to help mitigate urban sprawl and reduce air pollution by allowing many more people to live and work within walking distance of most everyday things they need, with many alternative transportation options nearby. The proposed BeltLine transit/greenway project is expected to pass within a few miles of the development.

In October 2003, the very first residents moved into the development. The 17th Street bridge was completed in January 2004 and the first round of retail establishments opened in October 2005. Atlantic Station received the EPA's 2004 Phoenix Award as the Best National Brownfield Redevelopment, as well as the Sierra Club's 2005 America's Best New Development Projects listing.

In July 2005, a pre-dawn fire completely destroyed a large wood-frame residential building under construction. Two days later, it was ruled arson after a major investigation. In addition to the destruction of the 65-unit Element building, which was only framed-in at the time, another 80 inhabited units at the Art Foundry across Mecaslin Street had damage to the facade, including scorching, broken windows, and melted miniblinds. At least five million dollars of damage was done to the buildings, 18 cars parked on the street were destroyed and another 7 were seriously damaged from the intense heat.