More than five years after it was officially completed, a landmark Grant Park building overlooking a popular park next to one of Atlanta’s primary cultural attractions has never been occupied. Unthinkable as that may sound. 

The modern-style, 7,000-square-foot Grant Park Gateway structure is just as much of a raw shell today as it was during the COVID-19 pandemic’s depths. But the neighborhood is hoping to finally change that—with statistics pointing the best way forward. 

According to Robert Selby, Grant Park Neighborhood Association president, a new survey is attempting to gather community feedback to better understand what nearby residents and visitors feel is the best path forward for the Gateway retail space. It’s described in the survey as a “unique public asset with immense potential”—but with a convoluted track record of sputtered proposals and dashed promises.

“Our goal is to collect clear, constructive data to provide insight into what would be successful here,” Selby wrote to Urbanize Atlanta via email. 

The neighborhood’s goal is to gather 1,000 survey responses to help whittle down a clearer community vision for the stalled project. (Our test-run of the survey took less than two minutes.) 

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

For the second time last year, a potential deal to fill the award-winning Gateway’s visually striking retail component fell apart in October, leaving more questions than answers in the middle of one of Atlanta’s most cherished parks. The neighborhood association, in response, formed a special task force to help ensure a fair and quick process for finally activating the building.  

The city’s original pick to fill the Gateway’s retail portion—Savi Provisions, a regional gourmet market chain—officially backed away in May, following about a year with no construction progress. 

After that, the city’s Community Development/Human Resources Committee voted in May to endorse an alternate Gateway plan put together by Terminus Commercial Real Estate Partners that had initially lost out to Savi. 

Terminus’ submitted plan for the Gateway space was a micro food hall and public programming idea called “Gateway Park and Market,” calling for three fresh food vendors, plus a grab-and-go market, coffee and tea options, a full-service bar, and a deli counter, among other facets. 

Early draft plans for the Terminus market concept's interior seating, bar, and kitchen spaces. Courtesy of Gateway Park and Market/Mike Walbert

The team included Terminus, an Atlanta-based commercial real estate firm, alongside Kraig Torres, owner of alcohol purveyor Hopcity, and Mike Walbert, a longtime Atlanta event curator and Grant Park resident. 

Walbert told Urbanize last year his team was awarded the Gateway bid in June and provided a lease agreement for review. But his requests to meet with the city’s Department of Procurement and parks officials to share updates and design refinements were denied a half-dozen times, leading Walbert and company to suspect the project would eventually be rebid without them. The team’s bid was eventually cancelled by the city, according to Walbert, who called the process perplexing and frustrating. City officials declined to comment at the time. 

The GPNA task force was formed in response to the second axed Gateway concept of 2025. 

City of Atlanta Department of Procurement records show no action has been taken by the city to find a Gateway tenant, or tenants, in nearly two years. The last Request for Proposals process was closed in March 2024. 

Savi’s buildout of the Gateway was expected to have taken about six months, but it never started.  

The third finalist in the Gateway bidding sweepstakes was Rease Group Holdings Inc., an Atlanta-based company led by CEO Andy Rease and founded in 2010. Few details about that group’s idea have been publicly divulged.

Controversial from the outset, the $48-million Gateway project replaced a parking lot (and mature trees) with the park-topped garage, finishing construction in 2020. The following year, it earned the Atlanta Urban Design Commission’s Award of Excellence for sustainable design. 

The distinctive building, officially opened in January 2021, overlooks a 2.5-acre park atop a parking garage, crowning a space that city leaders have described as “iconic.” 

The distinctive Grant Park Gateway building in 2021. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

The spacious interior of the Gateway building, as seen in early 2021, looks largely the same today. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

City officials took ownership of the Gateway space from the Atlanta and Fulton County Recreation Authority two years after it opened, which project leaders called a key first step in getting it leased and occupied. The city’s first Request for Proposals issued in February 2023, however, didn’t attract a single bid from prospective tenants. Department of Procurement officials blamed that on rising construction costs spurred by inflation and increased interest rates.

The second stab at an RFP, originally issued in February 2024, was a more detailed pitch to businesses that could fill such a large space. It called for a single enterprise to create a Gateway concept that would “increase the property value of the neighborhood [and] improve the area’s livability.”

Maybe a third RFP would be a charm? 

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