ATLANTA — Portman Holdings is the developer seeking to transform a handful of dive bars and small businesses on a prime stretch of Ponce de Leon Avenue beloved by surrounding neighborhoods, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
11Alive's partners at The Chronicle report that the plan, the specifics of which are still unknown, is stoking the citywide tension between preserving longtime Atlanta landmarks and making room for new development.
According to The Chronicle, no land sale has been completed. But Portman is under contract with several landlords to transform most of a block that stretches from the antique shop Paris on Ponce to the kickboxing gym Vesta Movement, according to a source close to the deal.
The block eyed by Portman - directly to the northeast across the street from Ponce City Market - includes The Local, The Bookhouse Pub, Southern Star Tattoo, Friends on Ponce, MJQ, Chipotle and a few smaller retailers.
Portman did not respond to their requests for comment.
Atlanta Business Chronicle originally reported an earlier sale involving Cartel Properties, a Buckhead developer, which completed a $3 million purchase of a parcel that includes the restaurant 8ARM and Paris on Ponce.
In June, 8ARM announced a limited operations plan going forward and a full closure in October. Then Vesta announced it was also closing, saying part of the city block to the east of the parcel purchased by Cartel had also been sold.
Two other businesses on the block but to the direct east, Gusto restaurant and Java Jive restaurant, said the sale only included the land Vesta sits on and west to the Chipotle.
One business in the stretch to the west, the Friends on Ponce gay bar, said it was not closing.
The map below lays out some of the geography. Inside the red square is the land sold to Cartel Properties, including 8ARM and Paris on Ponce. Inside the green square are the businesses reportedly not part of the plan. And inside the blue box in the middle is the stretch reportedly under control by Portman Holdings.
"News just broke of our entire block - from our building all the way to Paris on Ponce - being sold," Vesta said on Instagram in June. "We are among the small businesses being bought out by developers with a lot of money. It is very hard to comprehend how big of a change - and loss - this is going to be for the city that we know and love."
Other businesses to the east of Vesta, including Java Jive and Gusto, put out posts explaining they wouldn't be affected.
Friends on Ponce wrote in an Instagram story at the time: "We are not closing... these 'talks' of closing have been going on for years. It's a corner on Ponce, everything has a price. We would absolutely inform our team and all of you if this day ever comes."