johnatl

North Midtown is going to look like Vancouver with all of this blue glass, and I'm not complaining!

It will be great, and I must admit I love the simplicity of the design. Now if we could just get the Streetcar back on track all the way up to Dresden/Brookhaven Station!

I'm amazed at the bulk of this already. This monster will really push the Buckhead skyline further North. I'm really glad the church is staying and will co-exist with this tower. I think it will be a beautiful contrast.

metrowester - I lived in Florida (mostly Orlando) for years, so I can relate to this. I also loved Burdines and remember when Orlando got its first big one at Fashion Square. I'm old enough to also remember Maas Brothers, Jordan Marsh, May-Cohen & Ivey's being very big names around the state. As far as Belk at SouthPark, it truly is everything they claim it is. Any store would be proud to claim that as their flagship, especially a mid-market chain like Belk.

As I'm sure you are aware, that was an entirely different situation as Bloomingdale's completely pulled out of Dallas & Houston at the same time, along with Marshall Fields. North Dallas at that point in time was totally overbuilt, with Vally View & The Galleria almost across the street from each other - then the Texas economy tanked. JCPenney HQ's are right up the road, it happened to be a good fit and it made them look good for taking the Bloomies space. So far, we have been fortunate here in that things never have reached the extremes they did in Texas back in those days (i.e. overbuilt & tanked economy). I stand by my original assertion in saying Belk at Phipps is a big mistake. You need to remember that there are still people in this town that haven't gotten over losing Rich's. We just don't cry, whine and protest like they do in Chicago. Belk at Phipps (to those that care about these things) is like a final slap in the face. We were promised something by Belk that never happened, Belk lied the the consumers of Atlanta and the merchants at Phipps, and now whatever possible shred of good will that could have existed is out of here. Belk is doomed to failure at this location. Buckhead Betty has voted with her pocketpook, and she has told ALL of her friends. End of story.

Phipps is being looked at hard by Barney's right now, and they have basically been scouting Buckhead for a Flagship for the past few years. Belk landed by default at Phipps - that was never meant to be. As far as Phipps NEEDING Belk, that's funny. The truth of the matter is that nobody is shopping there now, if the economy goes even more South I don't see that changing anything. With all due respect metrowester, I don't think you understand this market. Orlando has come a LONG way, but we are on an entirely different level here. Consider Bloomingdales being yanked out of Millenium and being replaced by Belk. Then you may understand. The simple fact of the matter is that all of these high-end retailers are flocking here at the moment, recession or not. In two years when all of these new venues start opening, hopefully the recession will be a distant memory. At any rate, retail spending IS being squeezed like you say - particularly in the mid-range stores. So far, it hasn't affected the luxury retailers.

That would contradict the consensus here then....the store looks like hell. Too much merchandise crammed in, stuff thrown around and not stocked, etc. The local "ladies who lunch" crowd in Buckhead are pretty uniformly disgusted and after their first look are staying away in droves, and the merchants at Phipps feel as though they were lied to. This is in no way, shape or form any sort of "Flagship" in anyone's mind but the Belk people. Just goes to show you that they have no idea how to operate in this type of market. I love Charlotte, but Atlanta is not and hasn't been that type of market for 20 years or more. Someone didn't do very good due dilligence it would appear............... I hope it's a complete failure so Barney's can take the space. Belk at Phipps indeed!

I'm calling pure BS on this. And just which Miami store are your alluding to here - that disgraceful dump of a downtown store? Federated just added a 3 level 55,000 sq. ft. Mens Store to Lenox just a few years ago. The Lighting of the Great Tree is televised throughout the region from Lenox and routinely pulls in over 150,000 people every Thanksgiving. There is nothing similar at any Miami area Macy's. There is no way, no how that Macy's has any plans th shrink the Lenox store.

Source please? LOL at even mentioning the basement of the SouthPark store. And my math comes out to 190,000 x 2 = 380,000, not 330,000 as you state. So no, the SouthPark Belk is NOT twice the size as you also stated. And I don't believe you that the Phipps store is only 190,000 sq. ft. The bottom line is, Belk promised a "Flagship" at Phipps, which they have failed miserably at. The shoppers don't like it, and the other merchants wish they had never arrived.

Sorry, I know you are the "retail expert" around here, but that would mean the Belk at SouthPark is over 500,000 sq. ft. - which I know for a fact is just not true. The former Parisian space at Phipps WAS actually quite nice, with 3 levels and direct escalator access from the underground parking deck. Belk actually considers both the Phipps and Northpoint stores here to be flagships, as I've noticed in their advertising that the really upscale items are usually notated with a disclaimor that "these items only available at Phipps Plaza & Northpoint Malls." FWIW, the Macy's at Lenox is considered the flagship store for Macy's South, and is a little over a whopping 433,000 sq. ft.

Beautiful! Wish I owned some lakefront property in College Park!

^Yeah, me too! The frogs were way cool, as was the video wall, the little bambo grove, etc. It really was ahead of its time though, and the area WAS pretty sketchy back then. I used to go the Crab House quite often, and it got to the point they actually had security escorting people to thier cars at night if you parked out back (along North Ave.).

It was located at the SE corner of North Ave. & Piedmont, where Publix & Walgreens are now. I wish I had taken pictures of it, it was a pretty cool place when it opened.

^There hasn't really been anything mentioned.

Lexy - We used to have JAL, but they pulled out when Delta started thier Toyko flights. It would be great for them to come back, although I don't know if the traffic is there to support two daily flights. As an aside, my sister works for Sanyo and her boss goes home about twice a month. He says there is rarely an empty seat on the flights.

Thanks for posting that link to Maria's column, Martinman. I hope everyone takes a look. I thank God for Maria every time I read her. IMO, she is one of the sole reasons the AJC has any relevance. Whatever happened to Colin Campbell? These are indeed exciting times for transit here, but it's just so sad we have 3 more years of Sonny-Bubba to endure.

That would be great if true. There is really no place to buy groceries in the neighborhood right now. I had not even heard about this, but the other day I saw a new Pike's on Lindbergh just about to open. It should be a fantastic location for them.

^Yes, it is the old Sheraton Colony Square. What a lot of people don't realize is that the hotel originally opened as a Fairmont way back.

^I agree. I work across the street from there, and none of us are happy about it. McDonalds paid a whopping $1.6 million for that little lot! I'm sure it will probably be one of the nicest ones they've ever built, but come on.

No, I can't even imagine it! My mom grew up in Daytona Beach back in the days before widespread a/c. She used to tell me they would go to the movies all day in the summer just to stay cool!

radiostatic102 - You can believe your father in law. We moved to Casselberry in 1971, and there were thick woods almost all the way down to Colonial on 436 back then. It was very lush and beautiful. I still remember how shocked we all were when they started clearing the land for Altamonte Mall. One day it was thick, lush tall pine woods - the next it looked like a lunar landscape. Nothing but sand scraped completely bare. Back then, 436 was 2 lanes from 17-92 all the way over to Apopka, and thick woods started again right past I-4. Seeing it all today is very disconcerting, to say the least!

Yeah, I think a lot of people forget the telecom & dot.com meltdown back then hit us very hard. Only the SF Bay Area lost more of those jobs than we did. I think we area way more diversified now, though.

They do James. I have a friend in Marketing there, and he told me they scan UP, SSP & SSC on an almost daily basis. Several other large developers do too (Cousins, Carter, Hines, Barry, etc.)

They are Spartan - and it's called pure greed, bought and paid for by Georgians for Better Transportation.

Thanks for being involved in this important work, nwgeorgia. I have always heard that CSX plays hardball when it comes to this. They were supposedly one of the main reasons light rail in Orlando didn't pass, and I also understand they were not easy to deal with on the new commuter rail plan down there as well. It seems as if we may have to wait for Sonny-do's term to expire before anything but asphalt is laid in North Georgia. How freaking sad.................