The Neighborhood Downtown Rising

Multiple redevelopments set to transform heart of city

By Collin Kelley

Work on the redevelopment of Underground Atlanta is set to start within a month, while plans to revitalize eight blocks of South Downtown have been revealed.

Underground Atlanta in the heart of Downtown will become a mixed-use development featuring a supermarket, residential, retail and office space.

According to the SaportaReport, work will begin on transforming the four-block historic area in August when existing tenants move from Lower Alabama Street to Upper Alabama Street. Those include Foot Locker, Subway, Pandora, Skillz, Best of Atlanta and Kempani. The developers told residents at a recent public meeting that a rumored Walmart will not be part of the project.

Developer WRS said it will adapt the historic buildings that make up Undergound and have hired S9 Architecture, which worked on Ponce City Market and 725 Ponce. The first phase of the transformation could be complete in 18 to 24 months.

One of the first projects in transforming Underground could come from Prestwick Development, which has announced plans for a 180-unit apartment building called The Avery. The building would be located on Upper Alabama Street between Pryor Street and Central Avenue, and offer 150 units for households earning 60 percent or less of the area median income, with the remaining units dedicated to market-rate units, with an emphasis on workforce housing.

Meanwhile, German real estate company Newport US RE is moving forward with plans to redevelop eight blocks of South Downtown’s historic buildings between Underground and Castleberry Hill.

According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle, the company has scooped up 25 buildings in the historic area with another dozen under contract. Residential, student housing for nearby Georgia State University, retail, restaurant and office space are envisioned for the area, with construction slated to begin next year.

Also on deck: The new owners of the dilapidated Medical Arts Building in Downtown plan to restore the 1920’s Beaux-Arts landmark into an office tower. Global X, which bought the building at 384 Peachtree Street earlier this year, has requested $3 million of support from the Beltline Eastside Tax Allocation District for the project. The estimated cost for the renovation is $40 million.

When completed, the building will offer 85,000 square feet of Class A office space targeted to “community-oriented, nonprofit organizations” as well as ground floor retail space. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.

Along with those projects, work is moving forward on transforming the Turner Field site into a sports complex for Georgia State with a mixed-use component, and Los Angeles-based CIM Group is trying to shore up the property and parking lots next door to Philips Arena –known as The Gulch – for a mixed-use development.