If you’re keeping score at home, 2024 has been quite the year for parts of downtown Atlanta that don’t always receive the most love from investors, visitors, media, and the public at large.
In light of so much construction and investment activity, a reader named Corey recently reached out with a suggestion: “You should do an article about which new downtown development will have the most impact on Atlanta.”
Brilliant idea, sir. But that can be awfully tough to gauge, especially when dealing with hypotheticals and big concepts with no firm groundbreaking dates set. So let’s put this question to the people of Atlanta!
(Also, let’s tweak the question: With the $5-billion elephant in the room that is Centennial Yards, it’s clear which project would have the most impact, technically speaking, should all plans come to fruition. So we’ll ask the good people which project is most exciting and could be the most beneficial to parts of town that need a boost—and an injection of residents, workers, and visitors.)
But first—a quick recap!
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GWCCA properties
The 11-acre site in question, as the Signia hotel was under construction in March 2023. Base image via GWCC
The year started with a bang in what used to be the Georgia Dome’s location on the western fringes of downtown, with the Signia by Hilton Atlanta hotel tower delivering almost 1,000 rooms that peer down on Mercedes-Benz Stadium and across the city. More recently, Georgia World Congress Center Authority officials have selected a familiar development team to transform the 11-acre Home Depot Backyard into a new entertainment district spanning up to 250,000 square feet.
That team includes Atlanta development firm Fuqua Development, local investment and development company Pope and Land Real Estate, and Minneapolis-headquartered architects Nelson Worldwide—the same partnership that created The Battery Atlanta. Exactly what the project might entail, what it might cost, and when it could break ground hasn’t been revealed.
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The Center
Plans for the northernmost entry, near Georgia World Congress Center. CP Group; Healey Weatherholtz Properties; designs, TVS; ASD/SKY
A new day for a downtown classic could be dawning soon. Commercial real estate and management firm CP Group has filed plans with the city to start moving forward with the renovation of one of its trophy Atlanta properties, the 1.2-million-square-foot CNN Center.
Reenvisioned as “The Center,” the 1970s landmark is expected to see new, active plazas and outdoor hangouts, plus 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 Atlanta Hotel at Centennial Park attached to the facilities.
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Underground Atlanta
Courtesy of Underground Atlanta
The long evolution of Underground Atlanta encountered a setback last summer by losing its planned brewery near the Peach Drop location (like the ballyhooed food hall concept from Robert Montwaid before that), but there have been more recent causes for celebration at the storied, mostly below-grade complex.
MJQ nightclub has begun renovations of the former Dante’s Down the Hatch space, and the team behind Paris on Ponce opened a Parisian-themed entertainment concept, Pigalle by Paris on Ponce, last fall. Earlier this year, Underground also debuted Altar—a new entertainment venue and food concept—that project leaders called a “significant milestone” in the district’s reinvention and revitalization.
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South Downtown (Atlanta Ventures)
General scope of Project Elle across South Downtown blocks. Atlanta Ventures
The motivated tech team behind Atlanta Ventures continues to pack new properties into its South Downtown portfolio like U.S. summer athletes do Olympic medals, lending hope for a rapid injection of life in a historically rich part of Atlanta that’s struggled for decades.
Right now, the bulk of that work is focused on what’s called “Project Elle,” an L-shaped collection of more than 25 buildings that begins at Ted Turner Drive/Mitchell Street and bends around to Broad Street and up to Five Points. Plans call for converting that soon to more than 100 adaptive-reuse apartments, 150,000 square feet of commercial space, and 31,000-square-foot Atlanta Tech Village—Sylvan, the downtown coworking answer to Buckhead’s tech startup hub. Elsewhere, plans call for converting a parking lot near the intersection of Mitchell and Broad streets into “a beautiful kind of town square” before the World Cup, as a project official recently explained.
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Centennial Yards
Construction progress on base levels of the 18-story Anthem hotel project, situated just north of the apartment tower. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta
Outside of the Signia hotel, the most visible recent changes south of Centennial Olympic Park have come from—of all places—the former Gulch. That’s where Centennial Yards Company has topped out a new apartment tower called The Mitchell and is well underway with construction on an adjacent hotel tower and an 8-acre entertainment district anchored by a Cosm entertainment dome, with a fan plaza at the center.
The estimated $5-billion, mixed-use project’s broader goal is to transform 50 acres around the chasm the Gulch had been for generations—so in terms of scope, it’s the clear victor here. But that’s not we’re asking.
Now, with Atlanta’s first 2026 FIFA World Cup match just 650 days away, let’s take a second and ask ourselves…
