A paradise for retailers and home designers is hidden within the stacks of postmodern towers and sky bridges in downtown Atlanta this week.
This year, AmericasMart Atlanta is hosting the renowned four-day Casual Market event of outdoor products, which moved from its four-decade long home in Chicago, and is expected to bring a new flurry of commerce into Atlanta.
Mark Vaughan, executive vice president and chief sales officer of the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, estimated 70,000 people will be in town this week for the Causal Market, which runs Monday to Thursday, and the mart’s other events.
The 7-million-square-foot AmericasMart is filled to the brim with carefully crafted showrooms, featuring everything from rows of plush pillows to picturesque outdoor tables adorned with bowls of plastic produce. Any one exhibitor could have tens of thousands of people pass their product this week.
Visitors can shop for a bevy of furniture, furnishings, decorations and gifts at wholesale prices, all within AmericasMart’s three building sprawl on a few blocks in downtown.
“There’s probably no hotter category and rapidly growing category for the home than the outdoor area,” said Bob Maricich, CEO of Andmore, the owner of AmericasMart.
Vaughan said the week’s economic impact is easily north of $100 million, which would rank it among the city’s largest conferences and sporting events like Super Bowls. The mart generated more than $30 million last year in annual local tax revenues for the city of Atlanta.
The Casual Market’s move to Atlanta was led by private equity giant Blackstone Group, which acquired AmericasMart through Andmore in 2018. Andrea Drasites, a senior managing director in Blackstone’s real estate group, said the relocation to AmericasMart’s Building 1 from Chicago took about five years.
“You have a lot of strong companies and commerce already here,” Drasites said. “You’ve got a great airport and infrastructure, and sort of all the pieces of the puzzle that create good economic environments.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Peter Schauben, president and managing partner of Schauben & Co, has worked in the retail gift industry since the 1970s. He said Blackstone’s revamp to an open-floor exhibit hall design on Building 2’s 11th floor turned a disorganized and cluttered floor to a bustling marketplace.
As a result, the floor went from holding 16 individual showrooms divided by walls to an 100,000-square-foot open floor where shoppers can peruse dozens of vendors. Schauben manages about 40 vendors on his half of the floor.
“This is the future of the gift industry,” Schauben said. “Well-organized, well-shopped, well-attended.”
The AmericasMart building is among the Peachtree Center complexes designed and built by famed late Atlanta developer and architect John C. Portman Jr., and it’s been a fixture of Atlanta’s skyline since it was completed in the 1980s. The merchandise mart, along with multiple on-site convention hotels, were not part of Peachtree Center foreclosure proceedings that took place in September, where six office towers and a mall were returned to their lender.
AmericasMart is home to more than a dozen multiday showcases each year, but it rents space out to other conventions such as Dragon Con throughout the year. Those large events funnel scores of people into downtown’s restaurants, many of which are in need of customers after the central business district was upended by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Restaurant owners often look forward to the mart’s marquee events each year, and some locations often double their average volume, said Karen Bremer, president and CEO of the Georgia Restaurant Association.
Cindy LeBlanc, chair of Brewed to Serve Restaurant Group, which owns Max Lager’s Wood-Fired Grill & Brewery and White Oak Kitchen and Cocktails downtown, said the mart consistently drives customers even between large showcases. The buildings also have about 50 permanent exhibits where, aside from major markets, customers can still shop.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the year in which Blackstone acquired AmericasMart.
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
