Sleepy Underground Atlanta Waking Up

ATLANTA-A new city ordinance that forces bars and nightclubs to close at 3 a.m. but exempts similar businesses in the Underground Atlanta shopping and entertainment district to remain open all night could be the salvation for the three-level, 220,000-sf venture, retail brokers familiar with the property tell GlobeSt.com.

Local investors Dan O’Leary and John Aderhold, who lease the 40-year-old Underground Atlanta from the city, are screening over 20 applications from bars and restaurants clamoring for leased space in the district, brokers in a position to know tell GlobeSt.com. Only about 30,000 sf is left to lease.

The $25-per-sf asking rent at Underground Atlanta could double quickly, brokers estimate, easily surpassing the average quoted base rent of $40 per sf at most metro area malls. If the lessees can lease up the remaining space quickly, the deal would be satisfying to city taxpayers as well. City staffers confirm to GlobeSt.com the city paid $6 million last year to cover Underground’s $80-million bond debt. The bonds were sold to cover the 1989 reconstruction of the district, brokers tell GlobeSt.com. Underground Atlanta, rediscovered from the Civil War era and redeveloped by the city and local entrepreneurs in the late 1960s and early 1970s, is located under existing retail, office and apartment buildings.