Ponce City Market

How do you reposition an iconic property for a new generation of tenants?

Everyone in Atlanta knows Ponce City Market. That was our advantage, and our challenge. The former Sears, Roebuck & Co. warehouse, located in Atlanta’s dynamic Midtown submarket, was purchased and reimagined by Jamestown in 2011, and quickly became one of the city’s most beloved mixed-use landmarks. But you can only be the new kid on the block for so long.

As Ponce City Market’s original tenants (primarily tech startups with young employees) and Midtown’s office leasing environment matured, its brand needed to evolve as well. Our mission was to transform Ponce City Market (PCM) from a flashy, youthful tech hub into something more sophisticated yet equally compelling that emphasized the deeper, more unique strengths that PCM offered to established companies.

How We Did It

CBRE Calibre Creative Group worked closely with Jamestown and CBRE brokers to develop and implement a comprehensive office leasing strategy that repositioned Ponce City Market as a diverse, mature campus that could serve both creative tech companies and established professional services tenants.

Repositioning PCM presented three main challenges in a competitive commercial real estate environment:

1. The PCM brand needed a refresh to appeal to a broader tenant mix while maintaining its distinctive character—a delicate balance between heritage and evolution.
2. The market perception of PCM as primarily "creative tech space" limited its appeal to more established industries like finance and professional services, creating a subtle but significant barrier to diversification.
3. Many decision-makers viewed PCM's mixed-use environment as a distraction rather than a strategic advantage for employee recruitment and retention, seeing cost where there was actually opportunity. 
   
   

We solved these challenges with a slate of visual overhauls, new strategic positioning, and intelligent execution across key mediums, including digital, print, and video.

Brand Evolution

First, we worked with Jamestown to refine the brand in a way that honored Ponce City Market's historic roots while signaling its maturity. Moving away from the saturated, tech-centric colors of its early identity, we facilitated an evolution into a layered color palette and visual elements, including halftone effects and brand symbols.

These visual motifs represent both PCM’s stability as a platform for business, and the communities, connections, and ideas that arise from that stability. More than a facelift, our approach was to tell a visual coming-of-age story that respected the property's unique DNA.

Campus Positioning

To highlight the new developments Jamestown was launching, we reframed Ponce City Market not as a standalone office but as an integrated ecosystem. Establishing that PCM’s thriving retail network and proximity to the Beltline (a vibrant ring of parks around Atlanta) weren’t distractions but powerful assets in attracting and retaining talent was crucial. During tours, we orchestrated collaborative experiences with food hall partners that demonstrated how PCM’s retail could be a centerpiece of a prospective tenant’s talent strategy. And, in our materials and tour arrangements, we showcased how PCM’s distinctive array of common spaces could be used as conventional and casual conferencing and meeting areas.

Ownership Partnership

In addition to its on-site amenities, location, and historic charm, Ponce City Market had a completely unique strength: an ownership group that believed in the property so much they put their headquarters in it.

We emphasized Jamestown's hands-on investment in PCM, including their headquarters location within the property, demonstrating their commitment to creating an adaptable environment that meets the evolving needs of modern employees.

The Results

Our repositioning strategy, combined with aligned marketing campaigns, yielded impressive results: CONA Services signed a 49,000 square-foot lease, among the top five office deals in the Midtown submarket in 2024 and the second largest signed in Midtown in Q4 2024.