Kairos Development Corporation, developers of the historic Buggyworks office complex in East Point contributed funds toward the design of a gateway in the City of East Point’s historic industrial district along the Cleveland Avenue corridor. The gateway will serve as a visually pleasing entrance into the Cleveland Avenue corridor and will include a gateway sign, enhanced and improved landscaping and improvements to the existing sidewalk. This phase of the project, Phase One, was completed this month.

The gateway project at Cleveland Avenue is a small component of a master plan designed to transform the historic industrial district along the Cleveland Avenue Corridor in East Point into a thriving, prosperous area.

The gateway project focuses on short and long-term revitalization of the Cleveland Avenue corridor and surrounding neighborhoods by providing a vision and framework for future development and is a result of the Livable Centers Initiative Study sponsored by the Atlanta Regional Commission and Cleveland Avenue Corridor Study sponsored by South Fulton Medical Center.
The Cleveland Avenue Gateway Park master plan calls for better connectivity from the neighborhoods and the hospital, as well as sheltered bus stops, improved lighting, and other pedestrian amenities to make public transit a safe and attractive alternative. Within the master plan framework, the gateway project has great potential to meet the needs of the community and provide safety by including elements such as crosswalks, shelter and lighting.

The goal of the master plan is to improve aesthetics and the experiential quality of corridor, promote redevelopment; encourage mix of uses and incomes, increase usable greenspace and parks, improve links from South Fulton Medical Center to corridor and connections and access to services from neighborhoods and promote a healthy community and physical activity. The plan includes a gateway marker, bus/pedestrian shelters, benches, lighting, landscaping, and the redesign of a detention facility into a water feature.

The Georgia Department of Community Affairs awarded East Point $20,000 in Local Development Funds (LDF) for the design and construction of the project, but more funds were needed to even begin the project.

The historic industrial district in East Point is comprised of the Buggyworks and Wagon Works buildings which are found on the National Register of Historic Places.

Tags: Buggyworks, East Point, Kairos Development Corporation

This entry was posted on Friday, March 7th, 2008 at 6:40 am and is filed under Buggyworks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.