Two More Join Bid for City Hall East Venture

ATLANTA-With the city’s March 17 bid deadline approaching, two new names have joined the two locally based development teams ready and eager to buy and redevelop the 77-year-old, two-million-sf former Sears warehouse-distribution center into a mixed-use urban venture on Ponce de Leon Avenue. Mayor Shirley Franklin wants to do a deal with a developer by June, city staffers confirm to GlobeSt.com.

The multi-million-dollar project would be one of the most challenging in recent city redevelopment annals, brokers following various proposals for the property tell GlobeSt.com. Sam Himmelrich of Baltimore and Simeon Bruner, a principal in the Cambridge, MA-based Bruner/Cott firm are showing interest in becoming active players in the project, area brokers tell GlobeSt.com. Himmelrich’s credentials include retrofitting and leasing a former Montgomery Ward warehouse as an office structure near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

Area brokers familiar with Himmelrich’s track record tell GlobeSt.com he worked closely on the Montgomery Ward project with former Baltimore planning commissioner Charles Graves III who relocated to Atlanta in 2002 to assume a similar position with Mayor Franklin’s administration.