Downtown’s Medical Arts Building, long an eyesore, slated for overhaul into offices

July 20,2017

Plans: The historic tower will be transformed into office space for nonprofits, with street-front retail

The owners of the Medical Arts Building have revealed their intentions to transform the long-abandoned and heavily dilapidated 1920s high-rise on the cusp of The Connector into a spiffed-up office tower.

Global X, which took control of the building earlier this year with hopes of restoring it to its full Beaux-Arts glory, is requesting $3 million of support from the Beltline Eastside Tax Allocation District for the project.

They estimate the transformation of the deteriorating 12-story tower will cost nearly $40 million.

When completed, the building will offer 85,000 square feet of Class A office space on Peachtree Street at the northern edge of downtown. According to paperwork filed by Global X, the new offices target “community-oriented, nonprofit organizations.” Additionally, there will be retail space facing Peachtree Street.

The building’s facade will be restored, following the Secretary of Interior standards for historic preservation, officials say. While maintaining its character, the building will get efficient mechanical systems to help it achieve LEED certification, per the plans.

All indications are that the funding will be approved at the Invest Atlanta meeting today, meaning work could start soon.

Coincidentally or not, the news comes just weeks after it was announced the nearby Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter would close, following years of problems. Elsewhere, new residences continue to open in the neighborhood. Maybe this slice of downtown is finally getting its groove.

And a year after plans for the highway-capping Stitch project were unveiled for space next door, maybe it’s time to get those talks going again.