real estate

[Renderings] Goat Farm Arts Center To Undergo $250 MM Redevelopment

Key components of the expansion include a 125-room independent arts-based hotel, 200,000 square feet of 'mixed-income blend' affordable housing.

The Goat Farm Arts Center Wednesday announced redevelopment plans to the tune of $250 million.

Renovations are slated to begin later this year, at 1200 Foster St NW Atlanta, GA 30318, in west midtown.

The redevelopment will advance the Goat Farm Arts Center’s “goal to explore how property can better support art and culture” since its founding in 2010.

“We’ve been learning, by trial and error, to be both an arts organization and developer for 10 years,” Anthony Harper, founder of Goat Farm Arts Center, said in Wednesday’s announcement.

“We’re taking what we’ve learned and making something rare, culturally productive and economically self-reliant.”

Key components of the redevelopment include:

New home for MOCA GA (Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia) totaling 28,000 square feet
80,000 square feet of artist workspaces, entrepreneurial studios, and fabrication spaces
Mixed-income blend of affordable housing units, below market rate live-work spaces, below market rate residential units and market-rate residential units totaling 200,000 square feet
A 60,000-square-foot four-story hub of artist-focused micro-living units with in-building work studios providing additional economically accessible flexible housing as part of an experiment in co-living
Standalone office building constructed by brand and digital agency Edgar Allan, currently headquartered at the Goat Farm
Two restaurants-in-residence (concepts to-be-announced)
A café and roastery (concept to-be-announced)
125-room independent arts-based hotel in partnership with and co-developed by Tungsten Partners (currently in the early stages of due diligence)
Structure for larger footprint creative companies (also in the early stages of due diligence)
Multiple performance and exhibition venues dedicated to both emerging and established contemporary and experimental art, performance and music
Multiple Atlanta based artist-in-residence programs offering complimentary studio space and career development programming;
Permanent movement arts performance residency
An artist-run gallery with a national/international residency program with living and working space
Classical training and fine art initiative and facility offering superior instruction in drawing, painting, and sculpture
A music education concept
Fabrication lab and gallery for small to large scale works in digital new media art
…and more

“We’re taking on investors and partners to help us grow the cultural center in West Midtown and our platform,” Harper said.

“We’re looking at several new potential projects around the country to add more innovative concepts to our portfolio in the coming months and years.”

The Goat Farm’s development team, Anthony Harper, Allie Bashuk, Mark DiNatale, and Kris Knecht, and its co-development partners, Tribridge and Tungsten Partners, will begin construction in winter 2019, with a projected spring 2022 completion date.

The Goat Farm Arts Center will temporarily close while it remodels historic structures, builds out venues, constructs new buildings and adds new amenities.

“The Goat Farm began prepping its current community members earlier this year and will be helping them transition to temporary studios and residences at nine pre-coordinated satellite locations around the city during construction with the goal to transition them back when the work is complete,” Harper said.

“In fact, 98 percent of the artists, practitioners, and businesses have already registered to return.”

Once complete, The Goat Farm Arts Center’s footprint will reach half a million square feet.

Today, The Goat Farm Arts Center is a visual and performing arts center housed in a 19th-century complex of industrial buildings and contains the studio space of over 300 artists.

The center is used to host concerts, traditional and experimental theatrical performances, film screenings, contemporary dance performances, art exhibitions, artist residency programs, and professional ballet and contemporary dance classes.

To support arts programming, the Goat Farm Arts Center aims to award 40 to 60 grants totaling $500,000 annually.