Coincidentally or not, less than a week after a leading Grant Park neighborhood official shared his personal vision for turning the never-occupied Grant Park Gateway building into a Fulton County library branch, city officials are setting plans in motion (once again) for filling the bizarrely empty space. 

According to an email and paperwork obtained by Urbanize Atlanta, the City of Atlanta Department of Procurement has scheduled an in-person, pre-solicitation conference regarding the Gateway space for the morning of Oct. 2, a week from Friday. 

Procurement officials are reaching out to suppliers who could be interested in being part of what’s now called the “Grant Park Gateway Rooftop Food and Beverage Commercial Enterprise.” 

The conference will aim to gather supplier feedback as city officials “validate and refine the project scope” before formally asking for prospective tenant pitches (for the third time). 

“This process,” reads a notice distributed Monday, “also helps identify any gaps, clarify requirements, and ensure the scope aligns with current market capabilities.”

Nearly six years after completion, the Gateway building's main facade and empty interiors in Grant Park. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Totaling more than 7,000 square feet at the doorstep of Zoo Atlanta in the city’s oldest park, the architecturally striking Grant Park Gateway building has been finished, ready for occupancy, and completely empty for about six years, since the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

A quick recap of the Gateway saga: City officials took ownership of the Gateway space from the Atlanta and Fulton County Recreation Authority two years after it opened and issued a request for tenants in early 2023 that garnered no takers. A second Request for Proposals in early 2024 attracted Savi Provisions, a regional gourmet market chain, but that company later cancelled plans in May last year. 

After that, the city’s Community Development/Human Resources Committee voted to endorse an alternate Gateway plan put together by Terminus Commercial Real Estate Partners that had initially lost out to Savi. Terminus’ plan called for a micro food hall and public programming idea, “Gateway Park and Market,” but that team’s bid was eventually cancelled by the city last year, according to its leadership, for reasons that were never publicly explained. 

A Grant Park Neighborhood Association task force was formed in response to the second axed Gateway concept of 2025. Back in March, a GPNA community survey gathered 750 responses, seeking information on what residents of Atlanta would like to see become of the high-profile space. 

The top requested concepts for the Gateway were: “All-Day Café,” “Family Bistro” with direct lawn access, and “Micro Food Hall” with shared seating. The top write-in request, however, was clean restrooms, and a high demand for programmatic uses (think: events and wellness gatherings) was also apparent.

But still, the large structure overlooking a versatile greenspace (and downtown beyond) remains dusty and unoccupied. 

Aerial of the Gateway illustrating its proximity to the zoo's elephant habitat and downtown. City of Atlanta Parks and Recreation Department; via Epsten Group

Below is the questionnaire, verbatim, that’s being provided right now to prospective Gateway suppliers, with 14 specific questions.

Care to preemptively answer any of these, Atlanta, for any city-level folks who may be listening? 

...

PSC/RFI Roundtable Questions – Grant Park F&B 

1. How would you characterize current retail/restaurant demand in the Grant Park/Southeast Atlanta submarket compared to five years ago? 

2. Do you see Grant Park Gateway competing most directly with Krog Street Market/Reynoldstown, East Atlanta Village, or a different trade area entirely? 

3. What are the current tenant improvements in the market for F&B space? 1st generation vs. 2nd or 3rd gen spaces? 

4. Are tenants interested in the amount of build-out is needed? Is the customizable aspect of the space attractive? Are there elements that the city could invest in to make the space more attractive? 

5. For the Grant Park Gateway space, what do you see as the biggest hurdle? Are there any red flags in terms of visibility, parking, ingress/egress, ownership? 

6. What lease rates, types, and terms are you seeing in the market? Has this shifted in the last few years? If so, how? 

7. Are you seeing profit sharing lease structures in the market? 

8. Is the site's Beltline adjacency (0.4 miles) helpful for leasing or is it seen as discounted from true Beltline retail? 

9. What do you believe drove recent restaurant closures in Summerhill? Lease turnover? Over saturation? Broader struggles in operating margins for F&B? 

10. Are local/independent operators or regional chains more realistic first movers for this location, and why? 

11. Community input favors fast-casual - is this the highest and best use of the site? 

12. Are there any unfavorable terms in the previous lease for the space? 

13. How could lease structure support potential retail pop-ups? Is this a sublet situation? 

14. We are hosting another stakeholder interview focused on operations. Who else should we be talking to? Are there owners or operators with recent experience in this corridor?

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