Relapse Comedy Theatre temporarily setting up shop at Atlantic Station’s Geisha House space

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Improv and standup comedy theatre opening second Midtown location.

Relapse Comedy Theatre is opening an impromptu location at Atlantic Station.

The improv and standup comedy threatre secured a short-term lease with the Midtown development for its second intown location, according to Starr Cumming, specialty leasing and sponsorship manager at Atlantic Station.

Relapse will open at the now shuttered Geisha House space until the midtown development finds a long-term replacement, Cumming told What Now Atlanta Tuesday.

“My job is to get the lights back on in vacant spaces as soon as possible,” Cumming said. “I keep empty spaces occupied while Atlantic Station is looking for a long-term tenant.”

When Village Theatre was relocating from its Decatur Street location, it considered the Geisha House space in between moves, according to Cumming. Village Theatre will relocate to the Pencil Factory Lofts Downtown February.

The theatre’s intent to temporarily open in the Geisha House space gave Cumming the idea to approach Relapse, one of Atlantic Station’s “Improv in The Park” participants.

Relapse’s permanent theatre, at 380 14th Street, will remain open. Its Atlantic Station location will offer performances for at least one year, once it opens.

[Disclosure: the author of this article is employed by North American Properties (Atlantic Station’s developer). Articles relating to North American Properties, Atlantic Station, or its affiliates will be treated like all other news content presented on What Now Atlanta. The owner of this blog will never receive compensation in any way from this blog’s content unless explicitly noted.]

 

Caleb J. Spivak

Caleb J. Spivak

Caleb J. Spivak

Caleb J. Spivak

33 Responses

  1. Sorry, but your puny disclaimer about your Atlantic Station connection does not cut it. At least it should lead at the top in a big bold font on any story you post about Atlantic Station or North American Properties. I think you suffer from conflict of interest writing about these stories. How independent can you really be when reporting about Atlantic Station? How do we know you are not omitting stories that are negative to Atlantic Station or skipping stories about other restaurants or retailers in midtown or Buckhead? You are a PR shrill now and anything you publish in What Now Atlanta has to be consider as suspect.

  2. @ DenKon – you could have made your reply much easier to read, as well as write by just saying “I’m a moron”. Tell you what – how about you go out and find articles that are negative to AS, as well as find breaking news stories about restaurants and retailers in Midtown & Buckhead, before this site does, and start you’re own blog? What’s that? You can’t? Ok, well, then keep you nonsense to yourself.

  3. This looks like a pretty cool catch for AS — I think that a performance venue or two of some kind (comedy or live music) could work on a long-term basis here. It’ll be interesting to see how this works out.

  4. I think the disclosure is sufficient, but it gets hidden by the map. Most people know where Atlantic Station is on a map and will have stopped reading at that point. Your AS disclaimer should precede the article rather than being a postscript.

  5. I don’t think a comedy theater was what the original creators of Atlantic Station had in mind…the whole project is teetering on failure…if it were not for the office towers, Target, and the movie theater, it would be…there’s almost as many empty stores as open ones…

  6. Jalson – Please share the basis for your comment “teetering on failure”. There aren’t “almost as many empty stores as open ones”. You’d know that if you ever set foot in AS. I recently went to Kilwin’s and was shocked at how busy AS was. Is AS ideal? No. Does it add to Atlanta? I know this will disappoint many people, but the answer is YES. I actually think a comedy club is a GREAT addition to AS. What makes you think the creators of AS didn’t have a comedy theater in mind? A place where people will come and spend money on entertainment and then likely spend money at the restaurants? Jalson – We’re all entitled to our opinion, but opinions are always more valid when they are supported by factual statements. Your comment is lacking in facts and is pure hyperbole.

  7. @urbanist you miss the point. The blogger has a reputation for reporting impartially hot news about restaurants, retail and other happenings. As far as I know he was independent from the players he was writing stories about. Now he is employed by North American Properties (Atlantic Station’s developer). So we have this article about an improv company opening up Atlantic Station on a short-term lease. Does he get the info from the comedy troupe? No, it comes from “Starr Cumming, specialty leasing and sponsorship manager at Atlantic Station”. How does this story not benefit his employer?
    Mr.Spivak should move his disclaimer to the top of all of his stories about Atlantic Station so we know from the start his connection. Then we can judge his objectivity..
    And, what I wrote is not nonsense. Being upfront about potential conflicts of interest is good journalism.

  8. Tried to respond earlier but something is blocking my replies. Here it goes again… (sorry if a duplicate).
    @urbanist you miss the point. The blogger has a reputation for reporting impartially hot news about restaurants, retail and other happenings. As far as I know he was independent from the players he was writing stories about. Now he is employed by North American Properties (Atlantic Station’s developer). So we have this article about an improv company opening up Atlantic Station on a short-term lease. Does he get the info from the comedy
    troupe? No, it comes from “Starr Cumming, specialty leasing and sponsorship manager at Atlantic Station”. How does this story not benefit his employer? Mr.Spivak should move his disclaimer to the top of all of his stories about Atlantic Station so we know from the start his connection. Then we can judge his objectivity..
    And, what I wrote is not nonsense. Being upfront about potential conflicts of interest is good journalism.

  9. DenKon..are you serious? This is a blog, not the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Nothing about this article comes across as biased. It is factual and contains no rhetoric doting on the AS or NAP. What would be disingenuous is if he was to write an article about the demise or misfortune of a competing development (which there is none.)

    Personally, I think NAP is doing a great job turning things around at Atlantic Station. Their winter concert series was great fun (I love The Band Perry), I am excited about the new restaurants coming in, and the center seems to have more upbeat exciting atmosphere. The negativity of some of the people replying to these article is appalling. If you don’t like this blog, don’t read it!

  10. Hey it’s Bob from Relapse here. Just wanted to let everyone know that we are super stoked about joining the Atlantic Station family. Starr Cumming has done a great job of filling out the place during the height of the great recession by bringing in more local business like us and the Creative Loafing.
    I live in the Home Park neighborhood (AS used to be in Home Park too) and remember how my house would shake when they were doing the blasting back in ’01. A lot has happened since then, but as a long time resident and business owner in the area, I am truly excited about the new and improved direction of the place. It feels safer and we are happy to forward our mission to provide a sustainable environment for comedians of all stripes here.
    Just so everyone is aware, we hope to get open as soon as possible and make such a splash that AS decides to keep us on as a permanent tenant!!!
    Until then, check us out on 14th Street!

  11. AJ: why don’t you go do a walk through of Atlantic Station…add up the number of empty stores/restaurants (and soon to be closing ones) and the square footage for those locations and see what you come up with and get back to me…

  12. As soon as Target adds a full grocery section in March, expect Publix to pull out of AS….I can’t see two grocery stores competing in that space.

  13. Is Target allowed to add a full grocery section? I thought Publix had in their lease that no other stores could open in AS with a full grocery offering. Has that perhaps expired? Doubt Publix would pull out though, they do pretty good business and compete just fine with Super Target all over the place. No reason to think they wouldn’t do the same here.

  14. Once again jalson doesn’t have his facts correct. Target is not adding a full grocery section. They are adding what’s called (I think) a “Fresh Grocery” section. It’s a limited section of things like produce, meat, bakery, etc items that Target doesn’t already carry. And jalson, you still haven’t backed up any of your statements, you just exclude office towers (well that is a major component of what AS always planned to be), movie theater (again, major component) and Target (not part of the North American Properties portion of AS if my memory of what I read is correct).

  15. @ Jalson – a lot of the spaces that are empty are likely being lined up for new tenants. Geisha House was empty, and it’s now becoming a theater. Dulce was empty and it’s soon to become a YardHouse. Meehan’s is filling a vacant spot too. You do realize that before a new tenant wants to move in, the existing one has to move out right? It sounds like you’d be happier if all the same old tenants were left in AS, and nothing was changed…fortunately for the world, opinions like yours don’t ever hold any sway.

    @ Can’t-Remember – I second that. If Whole Foods came to AS, the world would be a different place. I don’t mind driving up to the WF on West Paces, but it would be so much nicer to have one so close…one that is nothing like the one on Ponce, hopefully. The WF on Ponce consistently has empty shelves, empty hot bars, and a couple weeks ago, I watched a homeless dude stick his hand into the bread pudding and eat right out of the hot bar…three WF employees just stood there and watched. Certainly an outlier in the WF Empire.

  16. Target IS adding a full grocery section. AJ, get YOUR facts straight. Urbanist: the bottom line is there is a significant amount of empty space NOW. Perception is reality.

  17. I just can’t get past the issue that AS would have been fine, even with it’s flaws, in many other large cities. If this turn-around doesn’t take, I don’t think it’s the mgmt company’s fault.

    I would put WF across the street from AS, with a parking lot. And it too would likely have apathetic employees which can’t or won’t respect the store. Thats Atlanta.

  18. @ Jalson – the bottom line is space has to be vacant before it can be occupied by a new tenant. Perception is only reality for morons who can’t see the bigger picture, and that is that AS – while having leases space to a lot of tenants that I wouldn’t particularly prefer they lease space to – is drastically better than it ever was, and improving every day.

  19. Shut this blog down! A young nothing ass twenty something doesn’t have the depth to write on the happenings of a city.. Take your 1 week vacation Atlantic station gives you this year and travel outside the south and grow up. It’s time to stop supporting blogs that constantly destroy this progressive community movement that will eventually define our community.. Mark torro is atlantans Mitt Romney without the fame, money or prestige.

    1. hi conflicted. perhaps you should make less assumptions:

      i was born in england, lived in italy for four years, texas, new york, new jersey and florida — and that doesn’t include all of my travels abroad elsewhere. not to mention, im conversational in five languages and my parents live in kenya — that’s a country in africa in case you were wondering. my pinky is more cultured than your entire existence as an excuse for a pathetic human being, hiding behind an anonymous user name picking on a 22 year old.

      i need to grow up?

      good day.

      cjs

  20. @Can’t remember – You proved what I said – it’s not a full grocery. SuperTarget is a full grocery. AS Target will not be a full grocery.

    @Jalson – Come back to me in March when they open. I know the difference between a full grocery store and what Target will have. Will is suffice if that’s what you choose as a grocery store? Yes. But is it a full grocery store base on what most of us think of as a full grocery store? No.

  21. Funny you say that because there is nothing cultural expressed in your blog so maybe your holding back. I commend your entrepreneurial efforts here but your medium only tears down the work of others and I haven’t seen any positive impacts that have spearheaded development in the same areas. Your blog is toxic and destructive and worst of all your not even making money off of it. So instead of breaking new stories that will help build up your community you try to take them down.. So just like a immature co- worker who spreads gossip around the office your not only bringing others down your also bringing your brand down as well my bosses at Atlantic station brought you on because they are scared of you not because your cultured or super talented so stop living your lie. You know 5 langauges? We don’t believe you? most bloggers infuse their personal lives and experiences into the mold of thier information you haven’t done that at all.. So sounds to me like your parents are missionaries or military paraded you around until you turned 12 and every place you listed speaks English so how did you learn to speak 5 languages fluently? Henry county? Good luck fooling the rest of these folks your 10 minutes of local fame is almost up.

  22. Conflicted,

    This is just an interesting blog about new retail/restaurant developments in Atlanta. I enjoy checking in to read it. I’m also excited that AS may turn around. I was skeptical last year, but they’ve done a lot of great stuff. I’m impressed.

    You, on the other hand, have nothing to offer but bitterness. Honestly, you are pathetic. For your own sake (and everyone else’s), please let go of your crazy hatred for the folks at Atlantic Station. You can spend your life writing and spinning in the comments section of blogs, but you still won’t have any impact on whether Atlantic Station succeeds or fails. And what if you were to succeed and you brought Atlantic Station down? Would you then finally be happy? NO! Life is short. You need to move on.

  23. Happy for Relapse. They do great stuff at the 14th Street spot, and I’d love to see them develop a strong comedy club with both improvisation and stand-up shows (maybe featuring local and national folks) at Atlantic Station. This is the kind of stuff we should all be supporting IMO.

  24. @conflicted

    what does this little riddle you penned mean? with an emphasis on the last part ….

    1. It’s time to stop supporting blogs that constantly destroy this progressive community movement that will eventually define our community..

    and I’m not sure where your rude comments were warranted, but im pretty sure a blog cant destroy a progressive community movement …. that …. ‘will eventually define our community’

    I believe that; you, like Mitt (and the rest of the GOP pack), need a lesson on the First Amendment.

    As long as a writer honestly discloses their ties when writing a story, there is nothing wrong with it.

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