Ponce City Market Turned 100 the Same Year Its Food Hall Reset

The Sears, Roebuck and Co. building on Ponce de Leon Avenue turned 100 this fall. Sears ran a retail store and distribution center there from 1926 to 1989, and the building housed Atlanta City Hall in the 1990s. The anniversary also landed in the middle of a quieter change inside. The Central Food Hall opened in 2015, and many of its leases were signed for 10 years. Between the fall of 2025 and the summer of 2026, a wave of the original stalls closed and new ones moved into their spaces.

Who got those spaces matters more than the closures. The new tenants are established operators with locations elsewhere in Atlanta and beyond, chosen for their track records. And the market's newest openings this year mostly went in at the building's edges, along North Avenue and Glen Iris Drive, outside the food hall itself.

The Ten-Year Clock Ran Out

Jamestown, Ponce City Market's developer, has said plainly that lease terms drove much of the change. Adam Schwegman, Jamestown's head of retail leasing, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in January:

"We have over 30 food vendors, all shapes and sizes at Ponce, from full-service restaurants down to a popsicle stand, so there's always bound to be change. A lot of our leases are on 10-year terms, so some of them were natural expirations, and I would say in any major food environment, turnover is healthy."

For some tenants, the expiration made the decision easy. Anne Quatrano said W.H. Stiles Fish Camp was nearing the end of its 10-year lease, and with her Summerland project coming, the timing felt right. The restaurant closed at the end of September 2025.

Other departures were harder. Ton Ton Ramen & Yakitori and Miso Ko, both from restaurateur Guy Wong, served their last meals on January 3, 2026. Wong's team told the AJC they had hired a design firm to refresh the concept, expecting to renew. Schwegman said Jamestown explored renewal options with Ton Ton throughout 2025 but the two sides "ultimately could not agree on a new concept." He described the goal as keeping "an element of discovery" in a food hall that had turned 10.

Sugar Shane's closed its stall on December 31, 2025, and La Metro, Hector Santiago's Spanish tapas stall, closed around the end of the year. By mid-January, Schwegman said, only one space in the food hall was still vacant.

Here is how the key swaps lined up:

The Replacements Arrived With Track Records

Schwegman told the AJC that when Jamestown weighs a restaurant lease, the first thing it looks at is the "strength of the operator," and that it values "culinary creativity with strong business acumen." The new tenants fit that description.

Okiboru, the ramen and tsukemen shop, was founded in New York in 2018 by Chef Sean Park and a business partner. It already had metro Atlanta locations in Sandy Springs, Buckhead, Duluth, the Mall of Georgia and Kennesaw before it came to Ponce. Park opened NoriFish in Sandy Springs four years ago and added a Buckhead location in 2025. Schwegman pointed to that track record, along with honors such as a Michelin Bib Gourmand, as part of why the pair made sense for the market.

The Ponce versions still have their own character. NoriFish runs a smaller, tighter menu built for this location, with made-to-order hand rolls, Japanese small plates, sake and cocktails. Okiboru pairs its noodles with rice dishes, appetizers and a full bar.

Terminal 26 follows the same pattern. The Thai street-food counter in the former W.H. Stiles space comes from the 26 Thai team, led by sisters Tanya and Niki Pattharakositkul. So does Market East, the Asian-inspired wing that opened on the food hall's first floor in June 2025 with concepts from the Vietvana owners. The market's directory lists five concepts there: Vietvana Phở Noodle House, Umbrella Bar, Boom Boom Bao, Lime Tiger and Uwu Desserts. You can walk in across the courtyard from The Roof ticket booth or through the main food hall by Collier Candy Co.

The New Openings Went to the Edges

The food hall swapped tenants inside its existing footprint. The bigger additions this year opened around the outside of the building.

• Ponce Brew Terminal held its grand opening on April 4, 2026. It sits on the ground floor of Signal House at 680 North Avenue, with a patio facing the Eastside Trail. It is Three Taverns' third location, a brewery, distillery and kitchen run with DAS BBQ.
• ALO opened on September 18 at 639 Glen Iris Drive NE, on the ground floor of Scout Living, and plans to host wellness classes and community events. Necessary Purveyor, which also has a Miami location, opened on the bottom floor of the same building in 2025.
• Whiplash, the comedy club from former Laughing Skull Lounge operator Marshall Chiles, is at 650 North Avenue, Suite 201, behind Dancing Goats at the corner of Glen Iris and North Avenue. The market's directory describes a 130-seat Main Squeeze room, a 44-seat Side Piece room, a 2,500-square-foot patio and comedy seven nights a week. The club's calendar lists a Heavy Hitters show on October 12.

Inside the building, the newest addition went up a floor. La Cueva, a 2,700-square-foot, 75-seat speakeasy and restaurant designed to look like a slot canyon, opened June 13 on the Central Food Hall's second floor.

The same pull toward the trail is showing up beyond the market. Sargent, from the Lucian Books & Wine team, opened August 18 along the Eastside Trail near 3 Parks Wine Shop and the Forth hotel. Chef Jason Paolini calls it an American brasserie built around iconic American and French dishes, and he wants the menu to be "recognizable and distinct."

The Originals That Stayed

Roughly half of the market's original food and beverage tenants are still operating, according to a Ponce City Market spokesperson, including Dale Donchey's Spiller Park coffee. Donchey told the AJC the recent closures didn't specifically worry him: "If you can look at your numbers and go, this is still working, and somebody else closes, I don't think that should necessarily be a red flag."

H&F Burger, Hop's Chicken, Botiwalla and Bellina Alimentari all still appear in the market's directory with posted hours. Bellina also took part in the centennial, teaching three pasta-making classes in The Courtyard on September 26.

The most recent food hall news came at the end of August, with the NoriFish and Okiboru openings.

What's Left on the October Calendar

Most of the centennial programming wrapped up in September, but a few pieces are still running, and the park next door has a busy end to the month.

1. Archival photography exhibition, on the Central Food Hall's second floor next to Glad & Young, runs through Sunday, October 18. Photographer Blake Burton and historian Jerry Hancock worked on the project.
2. Centennial history installation on The Trestle, the third-floor passageway to the BeltLine, traces the site from a natural spring, theme park and baseball field in the 1800s through the Sears years and City Hall. Parts of it will stay up after the celebration ends.
3. Blooms Market fills The Shed on Saturday, October 10, from 4 to 9 p.m., with local artists, makers, food vendors and live music.
4. Where the Weird Things Are comes to Historic Fourth Ward Park on Saturday, October 24, at dusk. It's a reverse parade: the performers stay put and visitors walk past them. The organizer lists 7:30 to 9 p.m. around the pond and amphitheater, with music from Black Sheep Ensemble.
5. ARTLANTA Festival of Culture is listed at Historic Fourth Ward Park from October 30 to November 1, with Atlanta artists, murals, installations and DJs.

Three Taverns also brewed "100 Years on Ponce," a pre-Prohibition-style ale, for the anniversary at Ponce Brew Terminal. It's worth asking at the bar whether any is still on draft.

The blocks around Ponce City Market change one lease at a time, and those changes shape how a home nearby gets described to buyers. If you own near the North Avenue and Glen Iris corridor and want to know how your block's story reads right now, Kristen Wickstrom and the Roots team can walk you through it. Get your custom market plan.