Steve Deaf/StaH THE OTHER SIDE: Looking from Forsyth Street over the Five Points MARTA station to the Capitol. Downtown plans generate debate I a few weeks before the Rouse Co., acclaimed Portman and Rouse Downtown for its festival marketplaces in downtown Boston, Baltimore and other cities, is sched- uled to complete a preliminary development proposals discussed Civic Center plan for a 145,000-square-foot complex of /peachtree ' Center shops and restaurants inside Underground, as Project well as plazas, a theater, a museum and new as possible conflicts office and retail development in the surround- Geofgie VA www riA ing south-central business district. YOUNG: UNDERGROUND TO RISE 2B Congrei* VC Dan Sweat, president of Central Atlanta

Omni International Progress, acknowledged that within the down- By Sallye Salter town business community he has heard ques- Staff Writer tions raised on Portman's timing. Five Pcxnls Sweat said his group believes there is In the wake of John Portman's recently "room enough for the Underground project disclosed plans to add a $60 million Slew# and Portman's project and that they would entertainment-retail complex to his massive work very nicely together." , a sensitive question is Inderground Al Truman Hartshorn, chairman of the being asked in the corridors of City Hall and Project geography department at State within the downtown business establishment: University, disagreed. Will Portman's plans endanger the House "The biggest problem is that there isn't a Co.'s proposed $120 million rejuvenation of market for the two projects," he said. "They and several surrounding would have to draw from one another. That blocks on the other side of downtown? was the problem a few years ago when there The question surfaced last month after mtwttaf H> were three different shopping malls proposed Portman, the architect-developer who has for downtown. There was hardly a market for created the thriving complex on Peachtree one. Street over the past 22 years, revealed in a "Because Rouse is going to draw so press conference that he intends to add a Portman's retail-entertainment center heavily on the convention people, it sounds futuristic entertainment center there. would occupy 500,000 square feet in the area like what Portman has got in mind is an And the concerns were fueled last week between Peachtree Center and the Marriott intervening opportunity — something closer by the disclosure that Portman Properties is Marquis hotel, now under construction. Half of the retailing complex would be set aside by to capture them up at Peachtree Center negotiating with Rich's — whose downtown where the hotels are." department store is a cornerstone in the for department stores such as Rich's and Saks Rouse plan — to locate a major store in the Fifth Avenue, with whom Portman Properties Portman project catering to an affluent clien- is also negotiating. SEE Downtown 2B tele. The news of Portman's plans comes just market, they would probably stay in Last week there were conflicting Downtown Columbia, Md." signals on the future of the Rich's In announcing his plans for enter- downtown store. FROM IB tainment facilities at Peachtree Cen- In discussions with Rich's ter, Portman said, "We need the Cincinnati-based parent, Federated Rouse plan, but that is not enough." Department Stores Inc., on locating a John Chapman, Atlanta project He said he envisions "futuristic" new branch in Peachtree Center, director for American Cities Corp., entertainment "not unlike . . . Epcot Portman representatives advanced Rouse's research subsidiary, said late Center and Disney World," while the the idea of simultaneously downgrad- last week that he knew so little about entertainment within the Rouse ing the existing downtown operation, Portman's proposal that he could not project would be oriented toward according to Rick Padgett, retail comment on what impact it might history. development coordinator of Port- have on the Rouse project While Mayor Young said he is opti- man's Peachtree Management Co. Scott Ditch, the Rouse Co.'s public mistic that both projects will be suc- "We discussed (a) Richway with affairs director, said later the compa- cessful, he nevertheless has offered to Federated," he said. "It's a natural." ny's position is that "anything that use his influence to help Portman at- But Rich's President James adds to the city would be good for tract a retail store other than Rich's. Zimmerman last week reiterated a whatever we do there." "I think it would be a mistake to commitment made several months The position that both projects can move Rich's," he declared in an ago: If the Rouse project is under- succeed and help one another in at- interview late last week. taken, the downtown store will be up- tracting customers has also been Rich's huge downtown store, which graded to the quality of Rich's luxury taken by Portman and is the long- has long dominated retailing in the Lenox Square store. Zimmerman said term view of Mayor Andrew Young. southern sector of the central city, the Rouse project is the No. 1 prior- Some City Council members who plays a key role in the Rouse redevel- ity of Rich's. have seen Portman s model go so far opment. It would be linked to Under- "I never heard of or thought of as to suggest that the Rouse project ground by a "Government Walk" that downgrading the downtown store," he will serve the lower end of the mar- would also connect several downtown said. "Downtown will keep the same ket. In their minds, Portman's end of government buildings. quality merchandise: Upper-moder- town will remain a three-piece suit, Portman has attempted before to ate." high-roller district for convention- lure the home-grown retailer a few City Hall is expected to back both eers, while the southern business dis- blocks north into his complex. In 1978 the Portman and Rouse projects for trict and Underground Atlanta will his efforts to move Rich's led sup- Urban Development Action Grants be a more casual, shirt-sleeve, stu- porters of southside revitalization to from the federal government dent and local environment meet with James Rouse, founder of But the two projects would differ This view of the Rouse project is the development company, to discuss dramatically in terms of other help "not accurate", according to Ditch, a feasibility study for the area, al- required from Atlanta city govern- who noted, "we see what we would be though the city was not successful in ment doing there as having a citywide ap- funding it at that time. Portman would need only the city's peal ... the broadest kind of appeal Richard Stogner, the mayor's eco- support for public works improve- to the whole market — the people nomic development chief, maintains ments required for the project's con- who live there as well as others." that the Rouse project could survive struction. Given Rouse's reputation in urban even if Rich's pulled out of its cur- redevelopment, said CAPs Sweat, "I rent downtown location. But he said Staff Writers Katberyn Hayes and would think if Rouse felt they were the city does not expect that to hap- Laurie Baum also contributed to this to be aiming at the lower end of the pen. report