Report: Past 25 years have fundamentally transformed Midtown

With the Braves’ Spring Training days upon us, here’s a little perspective: Since the year 2000, the 1.2.-square-mile area that is the Midtown Improvement District has seen the equivalent of nearly 33 Truist Parks take shape in new development. 

Yes, that’d be like 33 new Major League Baseball stadiums wedged into the sliver of Atlanta between Piedmont Park to the east, the Connector to the west, the southernmost blocks of Buckhead, and MARTA’s Civic Center station to the south. 

So SimCity in real life, basically. 

That’s according to a retrospective compiled recently by Midtown Alliance to mark a major milestone—the 25th anniversary, as of this month—of the Midtown Improvement District. As just one eye-popping number, the report found that $22 billion in new development has sprung up since the year 2000 across the area in question.  

The MID, for short, is a self-taxing entity for Midtown commercial property owners that funds public improvements; and according to Midtown Alliance, it’s been among the most crucial catalysts for spurring fundamental changes across an Atlanta subdistrict more synonymous with high-rise growth than any other. (Even Atlantans not around a quarter-century ago may recall a neighborhood more riddled with empty or underused buildings and vast surface parking lots.)

The foundation of the MID, which is funded by commercial properties owners via a special assessment, was set in the late 1990s, when Midtown residents made clear they wanted a more walkable urban environment with fresh mixed uses that didn’t lose the feeling of being a neighborhood. The result, according to Midtown Alliance officials, was a series of public improvement projects that transformed Midtown, as the MID’s formerly scant residential population is now approaching 30,000. 

From an economic perspective, Midtown Alliance credits more than $170 million raised by the MID for public right-of-way capital improvements with helping attract the area’s roughly $22 billion in development. 

In turn, that private investment has quadrupled the MID’s revenue since it was formed—to about $12 million this year alone. 

Other positive outcomes: Nearly 30,000 jobs in Midtown have been announced via relocation or expansion, and public-improvement projects totaling $21 million are either under construction or scheduled to start in coming months, per Midtown Alliance. 

Beyond the built environment, the MID’s push to hire off-duty Atlanta Police Department officers for extra patrols (the Midtown Blue program) has yielded positive results over the past quarter-century. 

According to Midtown Alliance, between 1998 and 2024, violent crime has plummeted by 78 percent and property crime by 68 percent in the core district.

Another, lesser known program, Midtown Green, has been expanded by way of MID funding for housekeeping duties across the district. Those include litter and graffiti removal, landscaping and watering, and the constant fight that is getting those pesky, toppled e-scooters off sidewalks. 

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• Before/After: Decade of growth has transformed Midtown Atlanta (Urbanize Atlanta)