Expect more outdoor dining (and cavities being filled) beside the Atlanta Beltline soon, as the evolution of a historic 1914 building in Poncey-Highland continues.
Capitalizing on major investment at neighboring Ponce City Market and under-construction 725 Ponce, Ford Factory Lofts is undergoing a tenant makeover, and some slots that have been traditionally hard to fill or weren’t outfitted for retail are now 70 percent leased, collectively, officials report.
Two signings announced this week are Rina’s Kitchen, a sister concept to PCM’s Bellina Alimentari, and Ponce Dental Group.
The latter is claiming the slot (plus part of an adjacent space) formerly occupied by Model T, an LGBTQ dive bar that had operated at the building’s base for three decades, before its displacement last year.
Both ventures are under construction now.
Having signed a 10-year lease, Rina’s Kitchen will take 2,425 square feet at the building’s southeasternwestern corner, with patios that will front the Beltline’s high-traffic Eastside Trail, Brett Fuller, a senior leasing advisor and associate broker for The Shopping Center Group, tells Curbed Atlanta.
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The eatery, per marketing materials, is “inspired by proprietor Tal Baum’s grandmother, Rina” with a lively menu of Israeli street food featuring “traditional flavors and cultural favorites with a modern vibe.”
The dentistry, meanwhile, has also inked a decade-long deal for 3,300 square feet, facing what’s being called “Beltline Kroger,” underneath and adjacent to 725 Ponce’s architectural office stack.
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Aimed at Old Fourth Ward and Poncey-Highland residents, the dentistry will be adjacent to a large breezeway connecting the Beltline to the other side of Ford Factory Lofts, which was built as a Ford plant in 1914 to manufacture classics such as the Model T.
Later, the U.S. Army Department of Defense occupied the 150,000-square-foot building, until its conversion to residential lofts in 1987. It offers 123 rentals now.
As it has been for years, the long retail space fronting Ponce de Leon Avenue remains vacant, Fuller said.