CNN Center's 'world-class' transformation moves forward downtown

With Atlanta’s first FIFA World Cup 2026 match just 665 days away, another project with the potential to benefit from an influx of global sports enthusiasts is rumbling to life downtown.

According to a Special Administrative Permit application filed Friday, commercial real estate and management firm CP Group is moving forward with the renovation of one of its trophy Atlanta properties, the 1.2-million-square-foot CNN Center.

CNN departed the building earlier this year and stripped off its branding as its offices were moved to Midtown’s Techwood, ending a four-decade era of the media company being headquartered downtown.  

CP Group plans to remake the 1970s landmark known for its soaring atrium into a modernized, “world-class” hub of dining, retail, entertainment, and content creation, officials have said. Its new name will be simply The Center.

Representatives with engineering firm Kimley-Horn filed the SAP application with Atlanta's Department of City Planning last week. Those filings indicate the first phase of renovations would see exterior façade improvements at CNN Center’s north and south entries.

Renderings for The Center show its low-key, concrete-and-glass entries revived with large digital panels, street-art murals, and new signage, along with outdoor seating and other hangouts.

A new social area called “Hawks Plaza” is in the works for the building’s southernmost entry, nearest to State Farm Arena’s main entrance, according to marketing materials. Elsewhere would be a remade atrium and reimagined retail corridors leading to arenas, the Omni hotel, and downtown lynchpin Georgia World Congress Center. 

CP Group’s renovations call for 130,000 square feet of retail space, alongside 920,000 square feet of creative office and media production spaces. Another component is the recently renovated, 1,067-key Omni hotel attached to the facilities. It’s all part of a massive portfolio the Boca Raton, Fla.-based company has amassed in Atlanta in recent years.   

CP Group officials haven’t specified when the former CNN Center’s next incarnation could start to open. The initial focus will be on activating the complex’s ground-floor level, company leaders have said.

Built in 1976 as the Omni Complex, the property was reshaped by mogul Ted Turner into CNN Center in 1986. Three years ago, CP Group bought the complex from CNN’s former parent company, AT&T, by way of a sale-leaseback that ran through this year. Along with Mercedes-Benz Stadium, The Center’s neighbors include State Farm Arena, Centennial Olympic Park, and the country’s fourth-largest convention center—attractions that draw more than 12 million visitors per year alone, per CP Group.

The Center is located across the street from Centennial Yards’ under-construction new entertainment district, which developer forecasts call for becoming a lively hub of World Cup-related activities in two years. Atlanta Ventures’ growing portfolio of South Downtown properties is situated just beyond that.

Meanwhile, just west of The Center, the Georgia World Congress Center Authority selected in June a development team that includes Atlanta-based firm Fuqua Development to transform the 11-acre Home Depot Backyard (formerly the Georgia Dome’s site) into another new entertainment district.

CBRE has been tapped to lease The Center’s office component, where no space had been available to lease for 40 years.

Marketing materials compiled earlier this year by retail advisors Healey Weatherholtz Properties beckon potential tenants to “Find Your Way to The Center.”

The marketing package describes Atlanta’s retail landscape as “grossly underserved” by its existing 2.9 million square feet of retail space. Downtown alone logged 42.5 million non-employee visits in 2023, it also states.

Another point of interest for prospective tenants: State Farm Arena hosts more than 300 events per year; that’s good for fourth in the nation in terms of sheer number of events, and seventh in the world among comparable venues for ticket sales, per the marketing package.

Elsewhere in Atlanta, CP Group is moving forward with additional changes to another landmark property it owns—Bank of America Plaza, the tallest building in the Southeast—where a new plaza, outdoor café, and top-floor amenity space are now planned.  

Find more context and a closer look at CNN Center’s planned changes in the gallery above.

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