Food-driven Krog Street Market on the way

By Collin Kelley
Editor

This time next year, Inman Park and surrounding neighborhoods will have a new destination for dining and buying food – Krog Street Market.

The market is just one part of a $70 million project being led by Paces Properties, which announced late last year that it had purchased nine acres of prime real estate bounded by the Atlanta Beltline, Edgewood Avenue and Irwin Street. The property includes the Stove Works – home to Rathbun’s Restaurant and Krog Bar.

The market will be housed in the former soundstages formerly owned by movie mogul Tyler Perry at the corner of Krog Street and Lake Avenue. The 1920s era building was the warehouse for the Atlanta Stove Works, which once manufactured cast iron stoves.

Paces Vice President George Banks compared Krog Street Market and its food hall to the Melrose Market in Seattle or the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

“Krog Street will focus on food and restaurants,” Banks said, noting there will be covered patios and a 6,000 square-foot indoor market.

Banks said that all the tenants at Krog Street Market would be local. “There will be no national brands or chains,” he commented. “We’re actively seeking local restaurateurs and local farmers to make this space truly a neighborhood market.”

Lily Heimburger, vice president of SRS Real Estate, which will handle leasing for the project, said two restaurants have already signed letters of intent and more are on the way.

Visitors to the Krog Street Market will find original brick walls, concrete floors, soaring ceilings and large skylights that flood the space with natural light. Heimburger said she envisions cheesemongers, wine shops and other stalls mixing with the sit-down restaurants and food vendors down the long, expansive hall.

Beyond the market itself, Banks said there are also plans to transform another part of the building into residential, while more residential will be built facing Edgewood Avenue and backing up to the Stove Works parking lot. A historic home that sits adjacent to the Krog Market’s parking lot will be moved just down Irwin Street and turned into a retail shop.

Banks said there are no plans to change the Stove Works or its tenants and the iconic bridge over Krog will be renovated and put to use for pedestrians crossing between the buildings.

Although the massive Ponce City Market, which will also feature a food hall, is just a short stroll up the BeltLine’s Eastside Trail, Banks says he believes the projects will complement each other. “We’re the Melrose Market to their Pike Place Market,” Banks said, comparing the two Seattle landmarks.

Krog Street Market is scheduled to open in June and be completely operational by November.

For more information, visit srsre.com.