Live For Buzz

East Atlantans love dogs. The Buzz is full of people who are really passionate about the critters, including several people who run rescues, many folks who have taken in more than a couple of shelter dogs and more than a few who absolutely consider their dogs to be their children. We have walkable streets, plenty of greenery, a commercial village where businesses leave water out in bowls, a big park and other factors that make dog walks fun for critters and their owners.

And we have a dog park. Sort of. But not really.

Before I started the Buzz two years ago, I had figured out that this vacant lot being used by Kingfisher Academy on Flat Shoals Avenue as a playground made an excellent space to let my dogs run free. Owned by Georgia Power and serving as a path for power lines, the lot is big, open and fenced.

View Larger Map

Kingfisher had rights to use it, and they welcomed the neighborhood to use it as well. All they asked is that you pick up after yourself (especially if you brought a dog). It was a secret dog park right in the Village.

I mentioned the Kingfisher spot early on after the Buzz was launched, and dog lovers soon organized meet-ups on Sunday mornings and Thursday afternoons at the “dog park”. Those events have been about as important as drinking nights in terms of Buzzers meeting their neighbors and building community around here.

But then Kingfisher moved and their playground became just another vacant lot - apparently leased from Georgia Power by Inman Park Properties. No longer officially welcomed by the group controlling the space, Dog Park Sundays and Dog Park Thursdays have nonetheless continued.

Those days, however, are now numbered. Word was given at the neighborhood association meeting this week that the lot will soon be turned in to parking for several businesses that have or will open up on Flat Shoals south of Glenwood. This summer the Ice House will open in the old Echo Lounge space, a bakery is opening in the beige building you see on the left of the StreetView image above, and The Midway could probably use more parking as well.

It’s hard to argue against adding more parking when new businesses are opening, but it will be very sad to see the “dog park” go away. We were lucky to have this spot for a couple of years, but its disappearance will underscore the need for and lack of an official dog park in East Atlanta.

There is plenty of room for a dog park in the city-owned Brownwood Park, but attempts to include a dog-park area in the park’s development plan were shot down by residents who live adjacent to or nearby the park. It seems the potential for noise, “traffic” and other undesirable changes didn’t sit well with people who would rather others not use the city-owned property their homes happen to sit next to.

A “commercial” dog park is an unlikely development, though a business like Park Grounds (a coffee shop with a dog area out back) would draw a lot of customers around here. Nothing like that appears on the horizon for East Atlanta, however.

So we’re left with a doomed unofficial dog park, little hope for a dog-park area within our neighborhood park and no good prospects on the private front. Buzzers are going to try to work the different angles to come up with a solution, but the options aren’t strong right now.

On EAV Buzz: Bad news for the dog park

So hot on the heels of yesterday’s news about East Atlanta Antiques closing up shop comes word that the building was actually sold last Monday for $1.4 million. DeKalb County online property records are notoriously slow to be updated, but a little bit of informed sleuthing showed the buyer to be an LLC controlled by Jeff Notrica, the head honcho at Inman Park Properties.

I’ve written a lot about Notrica and Inman Park Properties over at Cap’n Ken’s Homespun Wisdom, but a quick primer for those who may not be familiar.

Inman Park Properties is a large “developer” of commercial property here in Atlanta. The company has a reputation for buying up properties and sitting on them for a long, long time. And often, the properties they own are left vacant and allowed to rot away, affecting the character of their neighborhoods surrounding them. Here in East Atlanta, Jeff Notrica’s most infamous property is the John B. Gordon School, a former Atlanta Public School that Inman Park Properties purchased a decade ago with promises to turn it into fabulous intown lofts.

Here’s a look at their progress on the Gordon School:

Also in Notrica’s decaying-property portfolio are the former B&W Market and East Atlanta Lock & Key right in the heart of EAV. While Inman Park Properties does have most of their properties in East Atlanta leased (they are landlord to Village Hardware, The Glenwood, My Sister’s Room, Holy Taco, the new Midway Pub and several other businesses), the company’s willingness to leave properties sitting vacant and decaying is a big concern.

So when it’s revealed the Notrica purchased the Antiques Store property last month and I stumble across the fact that an LLC of his purchased the property where the East Atlanta Post Office sits late last year; well, it’s concerning.

The map below shows which EAV properties are owned by the major landlords here. Inman Park Properties is in red.

View Larger Map

Knowing that so much of EAV is owned by a guy who’s willing to let properties sit vacant and rotting if that meets his long-term business goals is unsettling, and the fact that Notrica seems to quietly buy up every property that becomes available is more than unsettling.

Buzzers see a day when Notrica owns the entire Village, kicks everybody out, tears the place down and builds some new, faux-authentic condos-above-stores development.

On EAV Buzz: RE: East Atlanta Antiques, Inman Park Properties owns the post office and Updated map of EAV property owners

Spotted - a “LEASED” sign at this small building on Flat Shoals Avenue that was built several years ago by Inman Park Properties but has never been occupied.

Buzzers have heard that some sort of bakery is going into the space, and information being dug up now says it’s primarily a commercial bakery with some level of retail presence as well.

On EAV Buzz: Inman Park Properties leases building next to dog park