Coro Realty confirmed to us late yesterday that it has acquired Midtown Place, which we thereupon immediately snapped across Ponce from City Hall East. The new owner turned reticent, however, when we asked the price, but retail brokers say it's likely $20 million or more. The seller, Sembler, developed Midtown Place on the site that once housed Ponce de Leon Park, home of the legendary Atlanta Crackers minor lease baseball team. The Crackers crumbled in 1965, a year before the Milwaukee Braves moved to Atlanta. In the late '90s, Sembler shepherded plans for Midtown Place through a contentious  entitlement process that ended with a commitment to spare the magnolia tree.

Atlanta's burgeoning in-town population flocks to the shopping center, in part because the 257K SF center offers retailers that are typically found in more-proven  retail submarkets. It's also home to a Home Depot that's not part of Coro?s purchase.