Expert: Peachtree Poised to Be Next Great Shopping Street

Ross Glickman, Chairman and CEO of Chicago-based Urban Retail Properties, believes that Atlanta’s Peachtree Street from North Avenue to 14 th Street is a shopping mecca waiting to happen, and that with smart new development, the stretch could rival Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, San Francisco’s Geary Street or Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive for retail excitement.

Speaking at “Let’s Talk Midtown” on September 21, Glickman walked the overflow crowd at the High Museum’s Hill Auditorium through 30 years of growth that have made Chicago’s Michigan Avenue a pinnacle of great urban retail, mixed use development and vibrant street life not unlike Midtown wants for its own community.

Similarities abound between the Magnificent Mile and the Midtown stretch of Peachtree Street. Both are approximately 14 blocks in length, and both allow for spill-over retail development on perpendicular and parallel streets. Glickman cited a combination of factors that ensure a vibrant and successful urban retail district, including: “landmark skyscrapers; quality architecture; outstanding urban landscaping and streetscape design; world-class hotels and restaurants; and connecting it altogether…elegant retailers.” The beauty and promise of Peachtree Street, he noted, is that many of these pieces are already in place.

Michigan Avenue’s retail renaissance began in 1975 when Glickman’s firm developed Water Tower Place, among the nation’s first vertical shopping malls. More than retail, however, Water Tower Place pioneered the concept of mixed use—a place where people could work, live, shop, dine, and visit. Its location on Michigan Avenue also happens to be within minutes of many of Chicago’s most popular attractions, including the Hancock Observatory, Navy Pier, the Field Museum of Natural History and the Shedd Aquarium. Today, Water Tower Place is one of the city’s top attractions and tourist destinations, hosting 20 million visitors annually.

Water Tower Place and its successors, including 900 Michigan Avenue and 730 North Michigan, have worked from the very beginning, Glickman said, “because they spoke to the street; they spoke to the neighborhood.”

Similarities between the Magnificent Mile and Peachtree Street were not lost on the “Let’s Talk” audience. The Midtown span of Atlanta’s signature boulevard encompasses the Woodruff Arts Center, the Fox Theatre and other popular venues and is within minutes of Piedmont Park, the Georgia Aquarium, The New World of Coca Cola, and other major attractions. Moreover, Blueprint Midtown, the community-envisioned master plan, encourages exactly the type of mixed use development outlined by Glickman.

“The intricacies of mixed use development are many,” he asserted. Specifically, he cited the need to attract complimentary, high quality retailers; provide convenient retail street-level entrances, continuous storefronts, and adequate parking; and lean on experienced retail development teams. But the benefits to the community and the city at large are untold. “What you have here is the opportunity to develop a stretch of Peachtree Street that will liven up the street on a 24-hour basis,” he said.

Can Peachtree Street become Michigan Avenue—with a distinctive Atlanta accent? “Yes,” Glickman responded. “I think it can.”