MOZLEY PARK—An interesting grassroots movement is afoot in historic, award-winning Mozley Park right now, where residents are advocating for a “Five Mile Project” that would erect a sound barrier along Interstate 20 they feel would keep traffic noise, environmental hazards, and errant vehicles (!) out, enhancing quality of life for the Westside community.
Capital B Atlanta has thoroughly explored in stories this month why the neighborhood’s unprotected I-20 frontage is a pressing concern today, why the Georgia Department of Transportation seems entrenched in its opinion that building a sound barrier won’t be possible anytime soon (only freshly widened or improved highways can see funding for protective-wall measures, apparently), and what elected officials serving Mozley Park plan to do next.
As of this writing, the Five Mile Project’s change.org petition was 24 signatures shy of its current goal.
Mozley Park resident Devin Landers, one of the project’s spearheads and a teacher at nearby KIPP Atlanta Collegiate, tells Urbanize Atlanta the change.org push might be an informality, but backers hope it will provide “further documentation to present to the powers that be.”
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DOWNTOWN—Bisnow Atlanta recently served up a couple of tasty downtown tidbits relating to two blockbuster redevelopment projects still moving forward in the historic area.
The first involves $5-billion megaproject Centennial Yards, where developer Centennial Yards Company president Brian McGowan said ambitious plans for three new office towers have been put “on ice” indefinitely as interest from huge tech companies has cooled—if not cratered. On a similar note, as McGowan told a recent Bisnow summit, Centennial Yards’ empty, historic 99 Ted Turner Drive building (immediately north of Wild Leap’s brewery, formerly home to Norfolk Southern offices) will not be converted into offices as planned, but possibly more apartments or a boutique hotel. (For a peek inside, see our tour of the gutted but rock-solid property from two years ago.)
The 30-story office tower at 34 Peachtree Street today. At left is another two-building complex the City of Atlanta hopes to convert to hundreds of housing units—many of them qualifying as affordable—soon. Google Maps
In other downtown housing news, Underground Atlanta owner Lalani Ventures hopes to begin a residential conversion at the 34 Peachtree Street tower—a 30-story, 300,000-square-foot building overlooking Woodruff Park, about two blocks north of Underground—sometime next year, provided that financing markets improve. CEO Shaneel Lalani told Bisnow plans call for remaking 20 floors of the 1960s structure into 200 rentals. Lalani’s firm bought the mostly vacant building for $12.75 million two years ago.
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MARIETTA STREET ARTERY—New York-based developer Tishman Speyer’s track record of walking away from its grand Atlanta development proposals is continuing in West Midtown. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports Tishman Speyer has withdrawn plans that surfaced last year to replace longstanding nightclub Compound and an adjacent property along Brady Avenue with a titanic mixed-use development costing upwards of $700 million.
The two former warehouse properties encompassing roughly 3 acres along Brady Avenue. Google Maps
Tishman Speyer pulled a similar about-face with The Mall West End’s potential redevelopment in 2021 and the Atlanta Civic Center property last summer.
While unstable markets and a tough lending outlook likely didn’t help, Tishman Speyer’s specific reasoning for dropping its Brady Avenue vision—700 apartments, 50,000 square feet of retail, and 300,000 square feet of offices—isn’t yet clear, the newspaper reports. But all hope isn’t lost for the 3-acre site, as a joint venture between Austin-based Aquila Commercial and veteran Atlanta developer Carter Properties is looking to redevelopment the properties to a similar scale: 706 rentals, 58,000 square feet of commercial space, plus a 135-room hotel, which would be positioned where Brady Avenue meets 10th Street, per the ABC.
That same development duo is moving forward with a 312-unit apartment tower nearby in the 900 block of Howell Mill Road.
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• All hail Mozley Park, your Best Atlanta Neighborhood 2021! (Urbanize Atlanta)
