Empty stores & empty promises at Underground Atlanta: what can we learn?

(Left) Pigeons in front of an empty storefront; (Right) Out-of-date old signage for Underground that hasn’t been removed.

In November 2017, almost two years ago, Maria Saporta interviewed WRS’ Steve Howe.

He said WRS was busy renovating the closed off ‘underground’ spaces with intentions of leasing them soon. He said: “Our goal is to have multiple tenants open and operating within a year” on Lower Alabama Street.

Howe also waved off concerns about WRS’ financial backing, saying: “We are well positioned.”

In May 2018, Maria Saporta wrote: “Scott Smith, CEO of South Carolina-based WRS, said all is progressing according to plan…There’s absolutely no financial issue with Underground whatsoever. We are right about on schedule of where we thought we would be coming into the project.”

Smith also said they were “building the construction pad for student housing.” In that article, leasing agent Kristi Rooks said that Underground “currently has eight letters of interest with prospective tenants on the site — ranging from food and beverage to retail.”

A long-defunct ATM stand at Underground, in front of a long-empty retail space.

With all that activity happening, you’d expect to see progress. After a visit today, no progress is apparent. Sources say that Rooks and Howe are no longer with WRS, by the way.

There’s a lesson here. Don’t be fooled by promises and renderings. During the year before WRS purchased the property, people were obviously dazzled by the rendering they released of a block transformed by towers.

Early rendering from WRS, showing new towers at Underground; none have been built.

Online comments from Atlantans revealed the success of the rendering — people were very excited about the possibility of seeing something great happen here, even though the developer had no credentials for a project like this (they’d mostly built Walmart shopping centers).

Can good things happen at Underground? Absolutely, some day.

But it was over two and a half years ago when WRS officially purchased the property at a bargain price, with Mayor Reed negotiating a deal to give away city owned green space in Buckhead to the state in order to get a parking deck WRS wanted, and there’s little goodness in sight.

Back then, some people were taken in by promises and renderings, when there were tell-tale signs of a questionable deal happening — we gave away the public streets to WRS, and that in itself should have given everyone a clue.