7 months after tenant pick, it's still crickets at Grant Park Gateway

This month marks four years since a Grant Park project described as “iconic” by city officials debuted, but still its modern jewel box of a retail and restaurant space remains oddly empty.

According to concerned neighbors, that shows no signs of changing soon.

Back in June, the City of Atlanta’s Departments of Procurement and Parks and Recreation selected Savi Provisions, a local gourmet market and grocery chain known for its wine selection and organic foods, to fill the entire, 7,000-square-foot Grant Park Gateway retail space. The distinctive building overlooks a new 2.5-acre park atop a parking garage next to Zoo Atlanta.

That selection process was competitive, and it called for Savi to open in roughly 180 days, or sometime around December last year.

Seven months later, the space remains vacant, with no signs of work starting soon.

Where Savi’s Gateway project stands—or if it’s still viable—isn’t clear. Inquiries this month to City of Atlanta press officials and to City Council member Jason Winston’s office haven’t been returned. Winston’s District 1 covers Grant Park, and he helped lead the Gateway tenant selection process.

Multiple inquiries to Savi leadership have not been returned. Savi’s website makes no mention of a forthcoming Grant Park location.

Perhaps more troubling for neighbors eager for fresh grocery and market options is that building permit records show no activity related to Savi’s buildout at the Gateway building.

The city’s Department of Procurement still lists the Grant Park Gateway tenant solicitation process as having been closed since April.

Founded in 2009, Savi counts locations in North Carolina and 16 stores in metro Atlanta, spanning from the airport to Howell Mill Road, Decatur, and Brookhaven to the Crabapple district in Milton.

The nearest Savi outpost to Grant Park remains the original one in Inman Park, roughly two and ½ miles away.

Savi, one of three finalists vying for the Gateway space, is expected to “boost the area’s diversity of food options and convenience, acting as a central gathering place for both residents and visitors,” read a June announcement from Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens’ office, following Savi's selection. 

The $48-million Gateway project replaced a parking lot with the park-topped garage, officially opening in January 2021. The following year, it earned the Atlanta Urban Design Commission’s Award of Excellence for sustainable design, but the process of filling the cavernous retail component has not been a walk in the park.

City officials took ownership of the Gateway space from the Atlanta and Fulton County Recreation Authority two years after it had opened—a key first step in getting it leased and occupied, per city officials.

But the city’s first Request for Proposals issued in February 2023 didn’t attract a single bid from prospective tenants.

The city’s Department of Procurement, charged with helping lead the tenant search, concluded that rising construction costs spurred by inflation, combined with increased interest rates, contributed to the initial lack of bids.

The city later partnered with Invest Atlanta to offer an unspecified amount of financial assistance to the right operator.  

Issued in February, the second stab at an RFP was an improved pitch to businesses that could fill such a large space. It provided drone footage, set up tours for potential tenants, and specified how large the shell space is: 7,056 square feet. It called for a single enterprise to create a Gateway concept that would “increase the property value of the neighborhood, improve the area’s livability, serve as a convenience to neighborhood residents and visitors, and continue Atlanta's forward progress.” 

Another finalist for the retail space was a concept called “Gateway Park and Market.”

That idea was put together by a team that included Terminus Commercial Real Estate Partners, an Atlanta-based CRE firm, alongside Kraig Torres, owner of alcohol purveyor Hopcity, and Mike Walbert, a longtime Atlanta event curator. It called for a micro food hall “foodie destination” and “cultural experience” that would have leaned heavily into public programming and capitalized on proximity to Zoo Atlanta, as its creators told Urbanize Atlanta last year. 

The third finalist was Rease Group Holdings Inc., an Atlanta-based company led by CEO Andy Rease and founded in 2010. 

Find more context—and a refresher on what the Grant Park Gateway is today—in the gallery above.

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