Atlanta—In a move to accelerate the marketplace’s continuing growth, AmericasMart•Atlanta has purchased the former Grey-hound Lines terminal property on Andrew Young International Boulevard and will undertake a two million square foot expansion of its 6.2 million square foot wholesale trade mart complex, noted John Portman, chairman, CEO and founder. The transaction was completed in mid December, and preliminary design work has begun in preparation for an early 2005 groundbreaking. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The Greyhound property acquisition follows an eight-year growth spiral for AmericasMart•Atlanta, which houses the world’s largest single collection of area rugs, consumer gifts, home furnishings and apparel goods, and which retailers from every state and 80 countries attending its trade shows recognize as the most important wholesale marketplace for their business, noted Portman. The first phase of the existing center opened in 1961. The new structure will be situated adjacent to AmericasMart Bldg. #2, the second and newest of the complex’ three buildings, and will be fully integrated to the existing complex in continuation of the marketplace’s one-roof design, noted Jeff Portman, the Mart’s president and COO.

“The new, 21st-century building will integrate permanent showrooms and exhibition halls offering extended ceiling heights, technology services and amenities unseen in the trade show industry,” he added. “With this acquisition,” continued Portman, “we are perfectly positioned to create a new business environment that affords manufacturers and retailers a market experience that continues to be unmatched in the U.S. and beyond. “The new building will capture the ease and accessibility of our existing facilities in a design that takes its inspiration from the innovative and imaginative products it will house,” he explained.

AmericasMart Atlanta was launched in 1996 in a global repositioning and rebranding of the former Atlanta Market Center to produce national market share and industry dominance through a strategic mix of product selection and variety, merchandise categorization, facilities integration and the infrastructural advantages of on-site hotel and transportation facilities, and business services. “We have executed the first phase of our vision,” said John Portman, “to build the world’s largest department store for retailers.” Portman, who launched an AmericasMart•Atlanta forerunner home furnishings trade show in 1957 and who has subsequently designed and engineered the complex’ 47-year evolution, is doing the design for the new facility as well.

“This expansion advances and expands that vision to advance our growth as we move from the confines of a challenging economy in which we have fared well, and into the more robust business environment we see on the near horizon,” he said. Key to AmericasMart• Atlanta’s continuing growth is the ongoing resurgence of its furniture and home furnishings product category, in which demand for showroom and exhibit hall space is high, noted Jeff Portman, and for which increasing numbers of specialty retailers and designers are attending its markets. Home furnishings and home accents will serve as an anchor category in the new structure, which is scheduled to open sometime in early 2007. For more information on AmericasMart•Atlanta, call 800/285-6278. —Louis Iannaco