From the drastically changing skyline of Atlanta's tony Midtown market to how the Beltline will interact with Kroger, here are four key things we learned this morning at our Atlanta Construction & Development event at the W Hotel Midtown.
1. Midtown Skyline Changing Again
North American Properties' John Kelley, spearheading the rejuvenation of Colony Square, said with all the development underway in the Midtown area, there is an aesthetic sea change taking place. “The Midtown skyline is going to be completely different a year, two years from now,” he said. And that is why North American saw an opportunity to revitalize Colony Square, one of Atlanta's first true mixed-use projects. “It took 30 years for Midtown to catch up to Colony Square and now it's time for Colony Square to catch up to Midtown.”
2. Atlantans Prefer Density
New City's Jim Irwin, who is in the process of redeveloping the popularly nicknamed "Murder Kroger" across from Ponce City Market into a Kroger-anchored mixed-use project, said Atlanta is truly urbanizing. “For the first time in the history of our city, we're in the process of self-selecting urbanization,” Irwin said. And that's forcing developers “to play nice” with each other as each project needs to feed into another.
3. New Midtown Kroger Will Rise Up
Irwin told our audience the 725 Ponce project (rendered above) will develop subterranean parking while New City raises the level of the Kroger to be flush with the Beltline. That will give Kroger an entrance onto the popular pedestrian roadway.
4. Renewed Philips Arena Gunning For Millennials
The renovation of Philips Arena is in part to attract more Millennials, said Turner Construction's Zach Olsen, whose firm is the construction manager for the $190M+ project. There will be more of an open feel between concession halls and the arena itself. The west side wall of box suites will be entirely torn down, Olsen said. And construction will be happening even as the Atlanta Hawks play their upcoming season, with construction crews plugging away up to 20 hours a day during the offseason.
