Leaders of Green Street Real Estate Ventures had planned to convert the Armory building into office space, President and CEO Philip G. Hulse said, but those plans fizzled after prospective anchor tenant We Work launched a failed IPO in 2019.
Instead, the building will be the centerpiece of an emerging entertainment district that will span Grand Boulevard to Vanderventer Street, Hulse said.
“We bought everything along that path and we’re going to revitalize this into a mixed-use entertainment district that will attract literally millions of people into the city,” Hulse said. “This is a building that everybody drives by every day, that has been kind of sitting there idle, waiting to be reborn.”
The Armory will include a two-story slide, one of the largest video screens in the city and equipment for dozens of games, including badminton, table tennis and horseshoes. Local cover bands will perform on weekends, and a 60-foot stage will accommodate occasional concerts by national acts. In concert configuration, the space has an audience capacity of 5,000.
The next phase of the development will open in February.