Georgia 8, April 17, 2024

Several Projects to Begin at Georgia’s Two Main Ports

The Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) announced March 26 that it had approved contracts totaling $65.6 million for container yard work at the Port of Savannah’s Ocean Terminal, a 200-acre facility just downriver from GPA’s main container port.

“We’re very pleased with the progress on improving Ocean Terminal’s container handling capability,” said GPA President and CEO Griff Lynch. “We’re on track to see greater container capacity by late 2027.”

Earlier in March, the port authority board approved three project components, including earth compacting to prepare the site to hold container stacks, removal of a former bridge pier and preliminary utility installation behind the wharf structure.

The work will be funded through revenue bonds issued by GPA in 2022.

Previously approved upgrades at Ocean Terminal included the purchase of eight ship-to-shore cranes, refurbishing the wharf structure, and construction of an overpass for direct access to U.S. Highway 17. When all work is complete, the terminal’s annual capacity will grow from 300,000 20-ft. equivalent container units (TEUs) to more than 1.5 million TEUs.

Lynch reported to the board that GPA anticipates a third straight month of growth in March.

“I’d like to thank our local partners in the International Longshoremen’s Association and Gateway Terminals, along with our GPA employees for their work moving cargo across our docks with efficient, reliable service,” he said. “With a positive showing in the calendar year to date, Savannah is building momentum toward a stronger second half of Fiscal Year 2024.”

Money Flowing Into Savannah, Brunswick Harbor Projects

Lynch also noted that the ports of Brunswick and Savannah will receive a total of $82.7 million in federal funding for maintenance dredging and harbor improvements in a six-bill budget package passed by Congress on March 8.

Nearly $38 million will go to the Port of Brunswick, with $11.35 million earmarked for the planned Brunswick Harbor Improvements project and another $26.6

“At Georgia Ports, we never stop investing in the future,” noted Kent Fountain, GPA’s board chair. “As new and existing port users grow their trade through our terminals, we’re ready to take on additional cargo, providing the world-class service that our customers have come to expect.”

see PORTS page 6

Next Phase of Centennial Yards to Ramp Up Later in 2024

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 50acre 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 interna-

see YARDS page 6

Centennial Yards photo

Georgia Ports photo

The Georgia Ports Authority approved three project components, including earth compacting to prepare the site to hold container stacks, removal of a former bridge pier and preliminary utility installation behind the wharf structure.

Work Begins at Georgia Tech; Cheshire Bridge Repair Ongoing

An expansion project in Atlanta designed to modernize Georgia Tech’s historic football stadium and potentially help recruiting is officially under construction.

Georgia Tech officials broke ground March 25 on the Thomas A. Fanning Student-Athlete Performance Center, a project designed by The S/L/A/M Collaborative (SLAM) and constructed by DPR Construction, both of which are Atlanta-based companies.

The Fanning Center was approved by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia in April 2022.

The building is named for Tech alum Thomas A. Fanning, a booster who holds three degrees from the university and was considered a visionary in the energy industry during a 43-year career with Southern Company, the Georgia-based utility.

Fanning attended the groundbreaking ceremony along- side Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera, J Batt, the university’s director of athletics, and Brent Key, Tech’s head football coach.

The 100,000-sq.-ft. expansion is taking place at the northeast corner of the century-old stadium — now called Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field — in hopes of boosting the prestigious school’s football program and other athletic teams.

Urbanize Atlanta reported that the facility is rising within the footprint of the former Edge/Rice Center, Tech’s former concrete-built athletics headquarters, and will utilize a modified, more traditional design than what was initially envisioned three years ago.

The performance center will house areas for athlete strength and conditioning, sports medicine, nutrition, academic support and Georgia Tech athletics’ Total Person Program.

In addition, it will include expanded space specifically for the football program, such as a players’ lounge, meeting spaces and strength-and-conditioning facilities. School officials believe that the new building will boost its athlete recruiting efforts.

The Fanning Center will be the site of Georgia Tech’s first sports science lab, according to Urbanize Atlanta, which will use pro-model motion tracking to analyze student-athletes’

The S/L/A/M Collaborative rendering

Located in the northeast corner of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field, the Fanning Center will serve as a hub for Georgia Tech student-athletes, with areas dedicated to strength and conditioning, sports medicine (including mental health services) and nutrition, as well as expanded and enhanced meeting and office space exclusive to Georgia Tech football.

performance data that will feed into an in-house data analytics office for performance tracking and analysis.

According to SLAM representatives, the Fanning Center’s building process will use energy-reduction strategies. Steel from Bobby Dodd Stadium’s existing infrastructure is planned to be woven into the expansion project, where cross-laminated timber will also be used throughout to add warmth and reduce the project’s carbon footprint.

Its construction is expected to coincide with normal operations at the historic stadium, which originally opened as a smaller facility in 1913. It has since been upgraded and expanded several times.

“As the college athletics landscape evolves, we’re thrilled to start bringing Georgia Tech’s vision for student-athletes and its campus to life,” explained Brian Oliver, DPR Construction’s project executive, a Georgia Tech graduate, and member of the Yellow Jackets’ men’s basketball squad that advanced to the university’s first NCAA Final Four in 1990. “We’re also proud that this project will help support opportunities for local workers in the skilled trades, many of whom feel personal connections with the campus and its ath-

letic program.”

Plans call for the Fanning Center to open for student-athletes in the spring of 2026.

Cheshire Bridge Repairs Not Likely to Finish Until Late May

The city of Atlanta is still working to complete repairs on the Cheshire Bridge Road span after a December fire shuttered the roadway, causing a headache for residents who rely on the overpass to commute, the Atlanta JournalConstitution reported April 1.

Atlantans waiting patiently for construction to wrap up received the unfortunate news during the last week of March when the Atlanta Department of Transportation (ATLDOT) projected the completion date to be the end of May.

Atlanta City Council member Alex Wan, who represents that area of the city, wrote in his regular newsletter that the ATLDOT noted May 14 is the target date to reopen the roadway, with May 27 the anticipated final day of construction.

“This is not the news I had hoped to be able to give to you today, but as I have, I’ll continue keeping you informed as frequently as I can throughout this entire project,” Wan wrote. “The administration knows my/our frustration with the pace (or lack thereof) with the repair.”

Early project timelines from the department targeted the reopening the bridge in 10 weeks, which would have meant the roadway would have been ready for use by early spring.

A recent project update document from the ATLDOT noted that progress has been delayed by “property access negotiations, site preparation, required document approvals and inclement weather.”

“We understand the urgency in restoring this road for the community and stakeholders,” according to the transportation department. “Our goal is to complete construction quickly, with safety as the highest priority.”

Luckily, the damage did not require the entire bridge to be rebuilt, the Journal-Constitution reported, but repairs included demolishing and replacing the damaged portion of the structure, shoring up existing utility and supports, and constructing a retaining wall and new roadway to connect the remaining portion of the bridge to the road. 

Budget Has Nearly $400M Set Aside for Capitol Hill Building Projects

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a record $37.9 billion midyear budget Feb. 29 that would pay for massive renovations on Capitol Hill in Atlanta, a new medical school at the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, miles and miles of Peach State roads, extra grants for rural airports, local water and sewer projects, and rural economic development programs.

Much of the budget includes what the governor proposed to lawmakers in January, and the measure would increase spending $5.5 billion, even though state tax collections have been slow for much of the past year and are not projected to improve anytime soon, according to the Atlanta JournalConstitution.

But with $16 billion in “rainy day” and undesignated reserves, Kemp and the state’s

lawmakers saw the midyear budget — which runs through June 30 — as a once-ina-lifetime opportunity to improve Georgia’s infrastructure, paying cash for a host of projects that typically take lawmakers years to fund.

The House and Senate had earlier passed the midyear spending plan on Feb. 26.

A late add to the budget proposal that same day included nearly $400 million to build a new legislative office building across from the Capitol and renovate the current Georgia Statehouse. That was made possible by Kemp deciding revenue collections will be better than originally forecasted during the first half of 2024. Lawmakers cannot budget more money than the governor estimates will come in.

“I am proud to sign a budget that further

invests in our priorities of public safety, education and workforce development, and strengthened infrastructure to keep Georgia the best state to live, work and raise a family,” Kemp said in a news release. “When you add everything in this document up, it demonstrates you can make smart investments when you budget wisely, trust the market rather than try to dictate it, and empower your citizens more than you empower the government.”

The money the state collects in taxes helps pay for K-12 schools, colleges, public healthcare, prisons, policing, business regulation, roads and a host of other services.

The new UGA medical school is just one in a range of major infrastructure and education projects covered by the new budget, including a new dental school at Georgia

Southern University in Statesboro, largescale computer system upgrades, more money for sewer improvements, and massive spending on building roads.

The state would spend an additional $1.5 billion alone on road building and maintenance, the Atlanta news source reported. Other projects to be funded by the state include $37.5 million on renovations at the Atlanta Farmers Market, and $436.7 million for a new prison in Washington County. Lawmakers also added $19 million to improve security in Georgia’s prisons.

The midyear budget also will allocate $29.25 million to pay for infrastructure and public safety costs related to the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2025 College Football Playoff National Championship events in Atlanta. 

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Ports Will See Dock Replacement, Harbor Improvements

million to dredge the federal waterway to its full authorized depth.

Earlier dredging this year brought that portion of the Brunswick channel to the authorized 36 ft. However, funds allotted in 2023 were insufficient to bring the outer harbor from approximately 37 ft. to its full authorized depth of 38 ft.

The new monies will cover the cost of dredging in Brunswick’s inner harbor starting late this fall, along with the outer harbor work, set to begin in December. Both jobs will take several months to complete, according to GPA.

In February, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law the state’s midyear budget adjustment, in which the General Assembly allocated just over $6 million for the Brunswick Harbor upgrades to complement the federal funding.

A recommended harbor improvement plan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) includes an expanded area for vessels to pass each other at St. Simons Sound, a bend widener, and an expansion of the turning basin where ships are steered bow-downriver before docking at Colonel’s Island.

These improvements will be made over a span of a year after the USACE awards a contract for the work, expected sometime in 2024.

The budget measures also devote $44.7 million to mainte-

nance dredging conducted year-round in the Savannah Harbor.

GPA Doubling Size of U.S. Customs Facility

The GPA also said that construction has started on a new and larger U.S. Customs inspection facility at the Port of Savannah, more than doubling the size of its current location.

The $44.5 million project will transition U.S. Customs operations from its current 130,000 sq.-ft. location at the Garden City Terminal to an adjacent 300,000 sq.-ft. building. The new facility will accommodate federal inspections by Customs and other federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Additionally, Warehouse 83B will undergo a complete renovation and modernization to provide office space and to support the inspection of dry and refrigerated containers. That project should be finished by January 2025.

Dock Replacement at Brunswick Terminal

Another federal grant totaling $15 million has been awarded to GPA to help pay for the replacement of Berths 2 and 3 at East River Terminal at the Port of Brunswick. The purpose of the project is to improve safety and capacity for exporting wood pellets and peanut pellets, both of which are used as

renewable energy sources.

In addition to the federal money, Georgia Ports will provide another $15 million to cover the expected cost.

While conducting the initial design phase, GPA will execute a grant agreement with the federal Maritime Administration and start work on an environmental study required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

The current dock infrastructure is more than 50 years old.

Once the construction is complete, Logistec, the operator of the Brunswick terminal, will be able to work multiple vessels simultaneously at the two berths, thus improving the speed and efficiency of vessel service.

Construction is anticipated to start in late 2025.

Last year, East River Terminal handled more than 1 million tons of bulk products, including export commodities such as wood pellets, peanut pellets, and animal feed, along with imports of salt, perlite and other commodities.

Georgia’s ports and inland terminals support more than 561,000 jobs throughout the state annually, contributing $33 billion in income, $140 billion in revenue, and $3.8 billion in state and local taxes to Georgia’s economy.

GPA anticipates investing $4.2 billion in the next 10 years as part of its comprehensive plan to expand cargo handling capabilities to support future supply chain requirements. 

Centennial Yards to Break Ground On Apartment Complex

tional 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.”

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 after the developer completes 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.

ing 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. Centuryold 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.

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.”

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 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.  YARD

McGowan said those incentives push his team to build as quickly as possible. “As long as the property is not generat-

Centennial Yards recently converted the Southern Railway freight depot and office