This Midtown retail strip is successfully leasing—with zero parking

It might be one example in a city awash in challenged retail spaces, but a story is emerging at the base of a new Midtown high-rise that could renew Atlanta urbanists’ faith in the power of positive thinking.

A row of street-level spaces for restaurants, shops, and service providers has become a hot commodity along West Peachtree Street—despite having zero dedicated parking spaces.

The real estate veteran in charge of leasing believes it’s an important case study—and evidence that density in Midtown could be reaching a tipping point that offsets the need for so many vehicular visits, and so much valuable space devoted to storing cars.  

The retail properties in question total 13,000 square feet at the foot of Hanover Midtown, a luxury tower with 421 apartments in 31 stories that finished construction earlier this year.

Todd Semrau, vice president of Oakhurst Realty Partners, was approached two years ago about leading leasing efforts for Hanover’s retail portion where West Peachtree and 15th streets meet.

Semrau has a decade of experience in commercial real estate leasing, and he knew parking is a point of contention in most retail deals in denser Atlanta neighborhoods, with tenants typically wanting more, and landlords eager to provide less.

Semrau was informed the developer delivered no dedicated retail parking in the Hanover building, and he nearly walked away from the job.

“I did a lot of thinking on it, and I thought there’s no way I’m going to be able to lease this—this is Atlanta, and everyone wants a parking spot, even though it’s Midtown, across from a MARTA station,” he said. “I took it on anyway, and to my surprise… it’s really shifting the conversation.”

Interest from prospective tenants was tough to drum up for a while, despite the fact Google’s headquarters and several of Atlanta’s largest law firms are located nearby. A shift came when Semrau changed the way he communicated the parking situation to businesses sniffing around the area for space. At first, he plainly stated there was no parking in apologetic tones; then he shifted the approach to talking up Midtown as being “as New York as Atlanta gets right now,” and potential tenants began warming to the idea of a clientele entirely on foot, bikes, or e-mobility vehicles.   

“Go to any major city—Chicago, New York, Toronto, there’s no parking,” says Semrau. “Luckily the data backs that up here; Midtown has delivered thousands of new residential apartments over the last [few years]. We’ve lost some office, but we gained an incredible amount of residential—so what’s that do? It puts people on the street. Because of the density that’s in Midtown now, people are starting to say, ‘Okay, maybe he’s right. Maybe we don’t need all of this retail parking.’” (He makes a comparison to the legal clampdown on smoking in restaurants; the decision was made, a public uproar ensued, but people learned to adapt, and life went on.)

Today, the Hanover Midtown retail spaces are about 62 percent leased, with more signings on the horizon, Semrau says. (About 5,000 square feet remains available, which could be one space or up to three.) No discounts are being offered for the dearth of parking, as the $46 per square foot, per year, triple-net asking price is the market rate, per Semrau.

A milestone came last month with the opening of Foxtail Coffee Midtown in a large corner space. Business has been strong enough, Semrau says, that the business is actively scouting for a second Midtown site.

Two more businesses are on tap to open next month: Toastique, a gourmet toast, smoothy, and Acai bowl concept, and City Vet, a light-procedure veterinary clinic for dogs.

“We’ve got a good commercial mix there, which is what Midtown needs, that everyday retail,” Semrau said. “The northwestern side of Midtown, it’s really coming into its own. That’s where all the development is coming in, from 10th Street all the way to 17th [Street]. That could become a really great new walking corridor.”

Semrau relayed all of the above during a meeting over coffee in Decatur. Speaking big picture, he quoted a favorite passage from the book Paved Paradise by Henry Grabar:

“We routinely do ridiculous things for parking, contorting our professional, social, and financial lives to get a spot. Since the advent of the car, we have deformed our cities in a Sisyphean quest for car-storage, and as a result, most of the nation’s most valuable real estate is now devoted to empty vehicles.”

But Semrau hopes Atlanta—or at least denser districts such as Midtown—will provide a template for how younger cities can mature into more vibrant, functional places in a future where cars aren’t always king.

“I think it’s turning,” he said. “Other developers are surely going to catch on that, ‘Hey, wait a minute, we don’t have to build all this parking.’”  

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