New Holiday Inn Express downtown/midtown?

August 4, 2009 by Jeanne Bonner
Filed under: SMART GROWTH 

Around town 129
I’m guessing by now everyone has spotted the giant Holiday Inn Express banner (above) draped over a building on Peachtree Street that has been vacant since the beginning of time. Feels like that long!

A friend mentioned it to me on Friday, and then I saw it myself over the weekend from the deck of F.A.B. on Ivan Allen Boulevard.

I’ve not had time to snap a picture but it might be worth a detour if the hotel chain is announcing a new location. (Update: PHOTO above)

It appears to be shouting its message from the mountaintops!

I don’t know the history of the building but it’s one of those old haunts on Peachtree, between downtown and Midtown, near Max Lagers, that’s been abandoned for a long time.

I’m sure some astute reader will have some background info for us!

Why would I love it if Holiday Inn built a hotel on that site?

Infill, infill, infill!

(Maybe I could have bumper sticks made, you know like Drill, Baby Drill! Except totally different.)

We’ve built the city; it’s not going away; now let’s finish coloring in the figures we’ve already drawn.

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Comments

10 Comments on New Holiday Inn Express downtown/midtown?

  1. Darin on Tue, 4th Aug 2009 10:01 am

    2. A couple of people I mentioned this banner to told me that it was just an advertisement for renovations being done on the existing Holiday Inn building downtown. I would love for that to be wrong, though, because something good really needs to happen with this Medical Arts building. It’s sad to see a spot with so much potential go to waste.

  2. Jeanne Bonner on Tue, 4th Aug 2009 10:06 am

    3. Oh no! Reminds me of the Borders bookstore sign I saw in Glenwood Park (*le sigh*).

    I have a call into Holiday Inn Express so we’ll see.

    It just seems like a bad way to advertise renovations! ‘Cause it really looks like they’re saying hey, we are taking over this building/land site.

    Thanks, Darin, for the info.

  3. Grace T on Tue, 4th Aug 2009 11:23 am

    4. Once upon a time, this was a graceful building housing doctors’ offices almost exclusively, ergo the name Medical Arts Building. During its heyday, Piedmont Hospital was just north of where Turner Field is today and St. Joseph’s was on Ivy Street (now Peachtree Center Avenue). It was also the era of the house call.

  4. Jeanne Bonner on Tue, 4th Aug 2009 12:18 pm

    5. Hello Grace and welcome!

    Ahhhh….Atlanta history. Sounds so lovely! There are pieces of the city’s past sprinkled around the city, but it never hurts to save a few more. Particularly when items such as stately but disembodied columns from former banks just show us what we lost, not what we saved.

    Thanks for sharing.

  5. Charlie on Tue, 4th Aug 2009 1:47 pm

    6. Yes – just an ad, sadly. It really is a great building, hopefully someone can make the numbers work soon.

  6. Lance on Tue, 4th Aug 2009 4:59 pm

    7. History of the building notwithstanding, I’m surprised to see that any nationally-recognized brand would want its logo associated with a building that is so thoroughly beat to crap.

  7. Jeanne Bonner on Tue, 4th Aug 2009 7:10 pm

    8. I agree with you, Lance. I also think it’s odd to post such an ambiguous message. I see a banner with the word change on a building that’s vacant and my first thought is, this company that put up the banner is going to change this situation. Yay!

    I had a chance to snap a photo after I published the post, and having seen your comments, I thought the banner would say ‘Renovations at our location on such-and-such a street,’ but it doesn’t.

  8. Ben K on Wed, 5th Aug 2009 1:35 am

    9. Yeah, the Medical Arts building has been vacant forever. A number of people have tried to do stuff with it, to no avail. Dallas Austin (the music guy) wanted to convert it into a hotel about five years ago, but pulled the plug on the deal. I think a few other people have tried to do something with it. I know folks who think it is a cursed property. I think the current owners are asking a ridiculous price for the building, or at least they were a year or two ago.

  9. New Holiday Inn Express downtown/midtown? | My Green ATL on Mon, 5th Oct 2009 12:17 pm

    10. [...] and comments first appeared here on Atlanta [...]

  10. Medical Arts Building billboard rears ugly head — again | Fresh Loaf on Thu, 4th Feb 2010 2:48 pm

    11. [...] August, some Atlantans were puzzled by a massive Holiday Inn billboard that wrapped around the exterior of the Medical Arts Building on [...]

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