<p>The World of Coca-Cola is set to close Saturday as the museum of all things Coke gets ready to move across downtown to its new location near the Georgia Aquarium.</p><p>The museum, whose doors opened in 1990, will reopen at its new location on May 24.</p><p>The Coca-Cola Co., the world's largest beverage maker, has agreed to sell the old building to the state of Georgia, but what to do with it hasn't been decided.</p><p>The museum draws about 750,000 visitors a year, so the move has some worried that the shopping center next to the old location, Underground Atlanta, will bleed visitors after the museum closes.</p><p>Dan O'Leary, who manages Underground under an agreement with the city, said the complex will survive because it has grown more dependent on people who live and work in the area and less on tourists.</p><p>"We don't know yet what the impact will be, but we certainly don't feel like the sky is falling," he said.</p><p>A November 2006 report by the city's Finance Department, however, forecast a 20 percent drop in revenue after the museum shuts down. It suggests Atlanta, which has subsidized the complex at an average cost of more than $7 million per year since 2001, find other uses for Underground.</p><p>O'Leary said the report has mistakes. Underground General Manager Bill Ciccaglione said there are 110 tenants in the mall, and an increasing number cater to locals instead of out-of-town visitors.</p><p>But getting a steady stream of visitors is crucial, said Ken Bernhardt, a marketing professor at Georgia State University and a board member of the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau.</p><p>"Underground Atlanta is an event attraction," he said. "When there is a big event downtown like the Peach Drop, they do well. But when there isn't an event, they suffer."</p><p>Also crucial will be to overcome the perception, fostered by the presence of loiterers, that the area is unsafe, which has many in the tourism industry steering visitors away from Underground.</p><p>"If people are not going to the World of Coca-Cola, we don't send them to the Underground," said Janet Maycock, a former concierge for the Westin Peachtree Atlanta who is now in convention services for the downtown hotel.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc0a8)</p>
