Photo courtesy of Centennial Yards
The partners behind the $5 billion effort plan to begin construction this year on six buildings, including an entertainment district opposite State Farm Arena and Mercedes-Benz Stadium with components that will open in time for the 2026 World Cup, and join a hotel and apartment tower already under construction.
Development of the long-awaited Centennial Yards project in downtown Atlanta is about to shift into a new gear, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported March 25.
The partners behind the $5 billion effort plan to begin construction this year on six buildings, including an entertainment district opposite State Farm Arena and Mercedes-Benz Stadium with components that will open in time for the 2026 World Cup, and join a hotel and apartment tower already under construction.
Centennial Yards Co. is embarking on the largest components yet in the ambitious 50-acre mini-city that has been in the planning stages since 2018. For decades, the land commonly known as "the Gulch" has been a jumble of rail lines and weedy parking lots that sit some 40 ft. below the viaducts that make up surrounding streets.
"It was a long time coming, and it's now happening," said Brian McGowan, the president and CEO of Centennial Yards, in an interview with the Atlanta newspaper.
The eight acres across Centennial Olympic Park Drive from Mercedes-Benz Stadium will become an entertainment hub consisting of four new buildings and a plaza for sports fan events, the annual Peach Drop celebration, and other gatherings.
McGowan described it as "the heart" of Centennial Yards and hopes to break ground as soon as June.
The entertainment district's building exteriors and plaza are targeted to open by the start of World Cup matches in 2026, when Atlanta will be thrust onto the international stage as a host city for the global event.
"You cannot get in a more visible place for eight games of the World Cup than right in front of the stadium," noted A.J. Robinson, president Central Atlanta Progress, a downtown civic organization.
The district's building interiors and most tenants likely will not be ready to open until early 2027.
Later this year, Centennial Yards' developers plan to break ground on a 236-unit apartment mid-rise and begin retrofitting the former Norfolk Southern headquarters building into a 166-room hotel, both with ground-floor retail spaces that are slated to open in 2026 or 2027.
By the end of this year, McGowan said eight buildings will be under construction at the Gulch, a sight that long-time Atlantans wondered they would ever see.
"A lot of developers right now are hitting pause or slowing down," he added. "Not us. We're actually accelerating."
Development Within the Center of Atlanta
The Centennial Yards site is the bedrock of Atlanta's economic past as a rail hub, the Journal-Constitution noted. Rail lines still move freight through downtown, but aside from game days, the actual property is often a dead zone.
Centennial Yards is planned to be built above the railways, and stitch together a vital piece of downtown.
"The industrial use of the Gulch helped grow Atlanta into what it is today," said City Councilman Jason Dozier, whose district includes the area. "And now we'll get to experience that space in a way that's integral to the Atlanta of the future."
The project is expected to one day deliver 8 million sq. ft. of new buildings, including thousands of apartments, office towers, retail spaces and restaurants.
Centennial Yards is a partnership between California developer CIM Group and a group led by Atlanta Hawks owners Antony Ressler and basketball Hall of Famer Grant Hill.
Ressler said the partners want more people to live downtown and create an environment where people also show up early to big events and stay late after their conclusion.
"Everyone that wants to see a great metro Atlanta should be equally excited about a great downtown," he explained.
The project first took shape in 2018 when the City Council approved almost $1.9 billion in incentives, the largest package of inducements in Atlanta's history.
The bulk of those incentives will only accrue to the developers after they complete components of the development. They can also capture the value of property taxes generated by the project via a Tax Allocation District and can do the same from a portion of sales taxes generated by new businesses there.
McGowan said those incentives push his team to build as quickly as possible.
"As long as the property is not generating property tax or sales tax, we're losing money," he told the Journal-Constitution. "It incentivizes us to move faster, even in a bad economy or an uncertain economy."
As part of transforming the Gulch into a series of high-rises with a new street grid, McGowan said the entire district's infrastructure needed to be reworked. Century-old sewer lines made of brick had to be replaced, MARTA train tunnels needed to be circumvented, and all the necessary utilities had to be put in place.
As part of the entertainment district, a corner segment of the CNN parking deck will be demolished, and a tunnel will be erected across active rail lines that run through the property. Three new roads will also be built as part of the construction.
‘The Next Frontier'
Downtown Atlanta, long a hub for government, tourism and major events, has struggled to match Buckhead's opulence and Midtown's building boom.
COVID-19 hit the city center hard, disrupting business travel, tourism, and sending scores of office workers home — which continues to impact the area's foot traffic and business.
But downtown is beginning to generate some momentum between several flashy projects, housing efforts and upcoming marquee events like the World Cup.
"The economic center of gravity continues to shift south," McGowan said. "The next frontier is downtown."
Centennial Yards recently converted the Southern Railway freight depot and office building into 162 apartments that are mostly leased. An attached retail area called the Canyon also is home to a brewery and will one day offer other restaurant options, he added.
Two cranes currently tower over Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where a pair of 18-story towers will soon rise above the surrounding concrete. They represent Centennial Yards' first ground-up construction projects and include a 292-room hotel and a 304-unit apartment building. At a later time, a 520,000 sq. ft. office building also will be constructed once its anchor tenant is chosen.
Other nearby developments also are looking to leave their mark on downtown Atlanta.
Under new ownership, Underground Atlanta is working on redevelopment plan and is focused on shoring up its retail offerings, while a 10-block section of South Downtown was recently acquired by the founders of Atlanta Ventures, who plan to focus on business incubators and entrepreneurship spaces.
William Pate, president and CEO of Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau, told the Journal-Constitution that Centennial Yards acts as an anchor that can generate momentum for all other downtown stakeholders.
"This is such a significant development that I think you're going to see it really energize other developments," he said.
Today's top stories
