"Ever since Atlanta held the Olympics, there's been a very strong return to urban living with a renewal of street activity and nighttime entertainment," Caldwell Zimmerman, president of the retail division, Colliers Cauble & Co., tells GlobeSt.com.
"There aren't any projects of significant magnitude, but there are developments like converted office buildings having restaurants on the ground floor," he says. There is a market for retail on Peachtree, though it could take a while to develop, Zimmerman says.
Local developer John Dewbury says it could take five to 10 years to create anything like Chicago's Michigan Avenue with such stores as Neiman-Marcus and Marshall Fields. The Midtown Alliance is a coalition trying to help Peachtree make that transition.
The demographics are encouraging. Within a three-mile radius from 10th and Peachtree streets, the 125,000-person population has an average household income of more than $60,000. There are 250,000 people working in the area, according to a recent study by the Midtown Alliance.
One potential problem cited even by proponents that will have to be addressed is the difficulty and expense of retrofitting existing buildings.
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