Multifaceted project near HBCUs, The Benz comes into sharper focus

A few blocks west of downtown, a proposal that calls for reshaping and reviving sections of a historic Atlanta college campus is coming into clearer focus. 

Resurgence Commercial Partners—a consortium of developers based in Atlanta—today released visuals and details for a project that would transform a long-vacant, roughly 8-acre site at 50 Sunset Ave. and 41 Griffin St. in Vine City. 

Morris Brown College, another stakeholder, would see portions of its legacy real estate brought back to life as innovation and education spaces, workforce training hubs, and “neighborhood-serving retail” should plans come to fruition, per the development team. 

Invest Atlanta’s Board of Directors approved the project in November.  

The Vine City acreage is at the doorstep of the city’s cluster of five Historically Black Colleges and Universities that comprise Atlanta University Center. 

The site includes the former Morris Brown Student Center (also known as the Hickman Student Center) and other buildings where Sunset Avenue and Griffin Street meet Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, directly across the street from Clark Atlanta University’s CAU Panther Stadium. 

According to Invest Atlanta, the Vine City redevelopment site was purchased by the agency in 2014 and includes two empty buildings, along with the Morris Brown U.S. Postal Service facility, which “has fallen into disrepair due to long-term vacancy and previous fire damage.” (An earlier proposal with a different development team called for a “University Commons” concept.) 

As outlined in new visuals, preliminary development plans call for a 100-room boutique hotel, a new parking deck, and a mix of retail meant to address community needs. Potential tenants, per Resurgence Commercial Partners, could include a small grocery store with fresh food, mission-driven and nonprofit businesses, and other concepts. 

Another component would be a 30,000-square-foot innovation and learning facility that would be built in partnership will Morris Brown College in hopes of supporting workforce development, business and technology incubation, and conference programming, per project officials. 

A third facet would see 200 mixed-income rental units and 15 for-sale houses—with neighboring greenspace extending north into Vine City—to be built by Prestwick Companies, Mercy Housing, and Cityscape Housing. 

Resurgence Commercial Partners, meanwhile, is comprised of ImpactData, Gibraltar Capital Partners, and The Miles Development Group, with a goal of creating “long-term, inclusive revitalization through strategic investment and amenities that serve the community,” per today’s announcement. 

“We want this project to reinforce Morris Brown’s role as a storied community anchor for economic and cultural vitality,” said Ashley Thompson, a Resurgence Commercial Partners principal, in a prepared statement.

Along with local colleges, the site is a few blocks from the Georgia World Congress Center, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Centennial Yards, the Reverb and Signia hotels, and other landmarks. 

According to today’s renderings release, timelines for construction in Vine City and other project details will be announced as the planning process moves forward. 

The Morris Brown College buildings aren’t the only notable, empty structures in the immediate area. 

Across the street is the long-abandoned Herndon Stadium, while the historic but “endangered” ruins of Gaines Hall and other landmarks are less than a block away. 

Find more context and visuals in the gallery above. 

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