A clearer picture has emerged for the next facet of downtown megaproject Centennial Yards as it begins the development process at the doorstep of historic Castleberry Hill. 

Centennial Yards Company has filed plans with the city for a Special Use Permit to start building a 127-room hotel and retail space at 88 Elliott St., part of the former Gulch’s western boundary in the shadow of Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The 68,300-square-foot hotel proposal came before the Atlanta City Council Zoning Committee this week, with filings that shed new light on the project’s potential functionality and scope.

Should it move forward as planned, the mixed-use building would mark the third new Centennial Yards hotel to start sprouting from previously vacant land to date, with much more in the offing. The site is a long, slender parcel situated between active rail lines and Castleberry Hill, across the street from the former Elliott Street Pub and Atlanta Fire Station No. 1.

According to hotel plans filed with the city, an area reserved for outdoor dining will be placed at the Nelson Street pedestrian plaza, where the pedestrians-only Steele Bridge links to Castleberry Hill. Around the corner, two retail spaces are planned at ground level along Elliott Street.

Meanwhile, at the project’s northern end along Mitchell Street, a smaller outdoor seating area would be connected to the hotel’s ground-floor bar and lobby.

Proposed layout for the 88 Elliott St. project, with retail spaces at bottom. The ground floor would be bookended by patios, with the larger one (at right) adjacent to the pedestrian bridge next door. Praxis3

Given the site’s proximity to a “high-capacity transit stop,” no parking is required, but blueprints do call for nine spaces within the building.

Plans also call for more public space—an 8,689-square-foot green area near the curb—than what zoning requires, per the filings.

The property is currently zoned MRC-2-C, which allows for mixed residential and commercial uses, though new buildings at the site are capped at 52 feet tall or less.

As a next step, the hotel project is scheduled to come before the Atlanta City Council at its regular meeting Tuesday.

The 88 Elliott St. property in question in June, across from the former Elliott Street Pub and Atlanta Fire Station No. 1. Google Maps

How the previous residential proposal would have met Elliott Street as part of Centennial Yards. [Note: This does not reflect designs for the proposed hotel, but project leaders have said it's similar.] Rendering by Praxis3

Centennial Yards officials initially submitted the project to the city as a multifamily residential building standing a maximum of roughly five stories, crowned with rooftop decks.

Project leaders have said no timeline for hotel construction will be available until the SUP and Site Approval Process are completed with city authorities. No updated renderings for the hotel were filed with the city this week, but the design and scope of the hotel aren’t expected to drastically change from the earlier residential proposal.

Just north of the planned hotel site, Centennial Yards’ first ground-up new residential tower, the 304-unit The Mitchell, topped out in August.

Across the street, The Mitchell’s sibling project, the 292-key Hotel Phoenix, officially topped out last month, with a goal of opening sometime this summer.

Both towers broke ground two years ago and now mark the $5-billion megaproject’s first ground-up new construction to stand at max height.

The 88 Elliott St. parcel in relation to the pedestrian Steele Bridge and other Centennial Yards development sites. Google Maps

East facade of the previous residential proposal on site, overlooking the former Gulch and active rail. [Note: This does not reflect designs for the proposed hotel, but project leaders have said it's similar.]Rendering by Praxis3

East of those buildings, Centennial Yards Company has also broken ground on an 8-acre, mixed-use entertainment hub anchored by a Cosm entertainment dome with a mid-rise hotel and fan plaza at the center.

Those buildings are scheduled to be finished in time for eight FIFA World Cup matches set to be played in Atlanta, beginning in June 2026, officials have said.

Current plans for Centennial Yards call for more than 2,600 residential units to eventually be built, with 20 percent of those reserved as affordable housing. Elsewhere will be almost 3,000 hotel rooms in projects ranging from boutique to full-service, alongside more than 900,000 square feet of entertainment and retail space, according to an update last year.

The 50-acre remake of the former Gulch has been called by its financial backers one of the largest public-private partnerships in the U.S. right now.

Centennial Yards’ infrastructure designs call for creating a dozen city blocks downtown, with a police mini precinct, a new fire station, and public greenspaces tucked among them. The project is considered a partnership between the Atlanta Development Authority, the City of Atlanta, and Los Angeles-based developer CIM Group, among other stakeholders. 

Scope of the site in question, with Mercedes-Benz Stadium depicted at top left. City of Atlanta Department of City Planning

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