Update: Atlanta is moving its New Year's Eve Peach Drop
Watching an eight-foot Peach drop toward Underground Atlanta has been the traditional way for Atlantans to welcome in the New Year.
Atlanta Curbed is reporting that this year the Peach may drop into a new locale. Curbed quotes sources saying that the party will move a few blocks north to Woodruff Park.
For 28 years the city has hosted an all-day party on Dec. 31, featuring bands, food, confetti, and the ceremonial lowering of the 800-pound Peach from a tower above Underground. The traditional New Year’s Eve celebration at Underground Atlanta should draw 100,000 people, according to PeachDrop.com.
Curbed suggests that this year the Peach will drop from the Flatiron Building, which is owned by Live Nation, which is also a sponsor of the festivities.
Speculation about whether the event would be relocated was ramped up with the sale this spring of Underground Atlanta to the South Carolina firm WRS Real Estate Investments. The sale had been announced two years ago, but was postponed due to complications, including questions about easements from MARTA and railroad companies.
Plans for the purported $300 million overhaul of Underground would turn it into a live-work-play community with apartments and a grocery store. WRS paid $34.6 million for the money-losing mall including 12 acres of land. The sale of Underground occurred in a year that also saw the sale of two dozen downtown properties to a German developer, Newport Holding GmbH, raising the prospect of a revitalized downtown south of Marietta Street.
A spokesperson for the city of Atlanta said the city had “nothing to disclose just yet.”
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