What $10B in new Midtown ATL development looks like

Josh Green

Fri, 11/08/2024 – 16:36

In a move that’s sure to delight Atlanta development fanatics, Midtown Alliance has updated its visual summary for a subsection of the city that’s been transformed by large-scale private investment in recent years like no other.

According to the nonprofit coalition of business and community leaders, an estimated $10.3 billion has been invested over the past six years alone in the 1.2-square-mile Midtown Improvement District, or what’s generally considered the neighborhood’s commercial core.

Per Midtown Alliance’s tabulation, 53 projects have been delivered in that area since 2018, with another eight under construction now. Elsewhere, eight large-scale proposals are in the pipeline.

From a bird’s perspective, that looks like this, generally speaking:

Overview of core Midtown development over the past six years, with the recent proposal neighboring The Varsity and the under-construction, two-tower Middle Street Partners project near Piedmont Park not shown. Courtesy of Midtown Alliance

An interesting note highlighted by Midtown Alliance today is the remarkable impact student housing has made on the subdistrict in less than a decade.

Since the first major development in the student-housing category delivered in 2015—Spring Street’s University House, with its game room and poolside Jumbotron that seemed astonishingly luxurious at the time—amenity-packed, high-rise student buildings have popped up across Midtown, from former parking lots near SCAD to the edge of downtown.

Midtown Alliance estimates that between 6,000 and 7,000 of all of Midtown’s 27,000 residents are now college students.

Courtesy of Midtown Alliance

On a related note, a Landmark Properties proposal that came to light this week just north of the original, iconic The Varsity location is scheduled to be vetted Tuesday by the Midtown Development Review Committee.

An agenda for the DRC’s monthly meeting provides insight into exactly what that development might entail.

Landmark Properties’ fourth intown student-housing project would stand 34 stories over the Connector at 680 Spring St., rising in a U-shaped pattern with views down to Georgia Tech.

Plans call for 560 units, with a total of 1,992 bedrooms, per the DRC. Roughly 8,100 square feet of retail space would be situated at the corners of the building, with a leasing area in between.

Rendering showing perspective from the south for the 1,992-bed proposal. Courtesy of Landmark Properties; designs, CNNA Architects

Current designs call for a parking podium standing six and ½ stories with 554 spaces for vehicles. Three sides of the parking structure would be wrapped with apartments, leaving the highway-facing façade exposed.

Pedestrian and bicycle access would be provided from three sides of the building, with a large bike facility situated at the southeast corner, per the DRC agenda.

Find a new perspective on how the tower could lord over the Connector over here.

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