Redevelopment Projects to Introduce GMA to New Neighbors

October 29,2018

This article appeared in the October 2018 issue of the Georgia's Cities newspaper.

Downtown Atlanta is coming full circle—from highlighting its historic beginnings to preparing for massive transformation and de­velopment, which will lead the area into the future. The GMA home office is right in the middle of it all.
 
Located at the corner of Trinity Ave. and Pryor St., the office is in the eight-block grid known as “South Downtown.” Changes to this specific area include the renovation of many of the area’s historic buildings by Newport US RE. For Underground Atlanta, a $250 million planned redevelopment will include a mix of housing, creative office and a restored “un­derground” retail and food hall. According to the Central Atlanta Progress, Inc., the South Downtown development pipeline alone rep­resents over $3 billion in investment, with plans to add over 2,500 housing units and 14 million square feet in commercial space.
 
For Downtown Atlanta as a whole, seventy new projects including 10.6 million square feet of office space, retail offerings, 2,065 new student beds and 4,264 new hotel rooms are either under construction or completed.
 
Jennifer Ball, Vice President of Planning and Economic Development for the Central Atlanta Progress, Inc. credits these unprec­edented changes to the city knowledgeably leveraging public investment for its infrastruc­ture with $3+ billion in street enhancements, and expanding rail and bus service, bike lanes and station upgrades. This funding came from a Renew Atlanta Bond, SPLOST and a MARTA sales tax.
 
Building on and creating a funding strategy to fuel the Downtown Street Enhancement Plan, which comprehensively examines all the street networks, is also a part of the imple­mentation process, said Ball. Development partners are also seeking ways to protect businesses who’ve called downtown home for years—well before the development boom.

Read the complete article at the link above.