When Esquire named The Optimist the country’s 2012 Best New Restaurant, it validated Atlanta’s rising culinary profile. The Optimist, known for its bustling oyster bar and inventive dishes such as spicy Spanish octopus with watermelon and coriander, also felt emblematic of a broader economic and cultural revival across the city. Many Atlantans describe the city’s outlook as optimistic, reflecting a renewed confidence in its future.
Atlanta has long hosted major corporations — Coca-Cola since 1892, Delta Air Lines since 1941 and CNN since 1980 — but the city also endured uneven mid-century urban renewal and the setbacks of the 2008 mortgage crisis. Before the 1996 Summer Olympics, downtown Atlanta bore little resemblance to the revitalized center it is today.
“Everything in downtown was doom and gloom. The Georgia Aquarium did not exist, the World of Coca-Cola, the other attractions and hotels in the area, none of that was here,” said Joe Skopitz, assistant general manager of Centennial Olympic Park, in an interview with WABE radio. The 1996 Olympics centered on Centennial Park, and while the games eventually helped spark downtown redevelopment, meaningful change took years of planning and investment.
Today, Centennial Park itself is undergoing a major renovation that includes new water features, a beer garden and terrace restaurant, additional art installations and more on-street parking. Larger cultural and civic projects are also advancing. Construction will begin soon on the $30 million National Center for Civil and Human Rights, a museum and research center honoring Georgia’s role in the struggle for civil rights, adjacent to the Georgia Aquarium.
Four years ago the National Football Foundation announced plans to relocate its Hall of Fame from South Bend, Indiana, to Atlanta. Construction began recently on the College Football Hall of Fame, a $97 million facility slated to open across from Centennial Park in August 2014.
Local leaders have also pursued major sports infrastructure projects. Earlier this year, Mayor Kasim Reed and Arthur Blank, co-founder of The Home Depot and owner of the Atlanta Falcons, agreed on terms to finance a retractable-roof downtown stadium estimated to cost $900 million to $1 billion. The Georgia World Congress Center will own the stadium, which is planned to open for the 2017 NFL season and replace the existing Georgia Dome.
Since 2007, downtown Atlanta has attracted nearly $3 billion in private investment plus $182 million in public infrastructure funding. The city is also prioritizing energy efficiency. As part of President Obama’s Better Buildings Initiative, Atlanta launched a Better Buildings Challenge that brings together public, private and nonprofit sectors to improve energy and water performance in commercial buildings. A benchmarking program is underway across a 400-block downtown area that includes City Hall, the Atlanta Civic Center and other municipal and landmark properties.
“We want to become the most energy-efficient city in the country,” said Kristi Rooks, senior project manager of economic development at Central Atlanta Progress. “Organizations representing more than 50 million square feet of commercial space have signed up to take the challenge. Through efficiency improvements like upgraded lighting, better insulation and more efficient heating and cooling, we can make buildings more energy-efficient and improve workplace quality while creating jobs and strengthening the economy.” Such investments help position downtown Atlanta to compete on a global level.
Residential and office occupancy rates in downtown and adjacent Midtown are rising, aided by major infrastructure projects. The $70 million Atlanta Streetcar Project, funded through commercial property tax assessments, will complete a 2.6-mile, 12-station Downtown Loop in spring 2014. “For our high-rise properties to work, you really need transit,” said Craig Jones, executive vice president of Cousins Properties. “We feel that the streetcar will result in more development and raise the values of our existing properties.”
The Downtown Loop, using modern, streamlined cars, will link historic Sweet Auburn with the Peachtree hotel district and key attractions including the Georgia Aquarium, Centennial Olympic Park, the World of Coca-Cola, CNN, Georgia State University, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site, as well as many retail and office locations.
Streetcars first ran in Atlanta in the 1890s and remained a common mode of transit until the late 1940s, when suburban commuting by car grew. The last streetcar line ended in 1949. Planners project that by 2030 the streetcar system will support an additional 4.4 million square feet of downtown office space.
Nearby, the BeltLine’s Eastside Trail already attracts residents and visitors who walk, run and bike along a 2.25-mile former railroad corridor. This segment is one of the first pieces of the planned $2.8 billion, 33-mile BeltLine, which will connect 45 neighborhoods with a continuous path that spans affluent and historically underserved areas within two to four miles of downtown. Though the most expensive rails-to-trails project in the nation, the BeltLine will add some 1,300 acres of parkland to a city that currently devotes only 4.6 percent of its land to green space.
With 10 Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the region, Atlanta ranks third nationally for the number of corporate headquarters. Major firms such as The Home Depot, UPS, Coca-Cola, Porsche Cars North America, Turner Broadcasting, Delta Air Lines, Newell Brands, NCR, Equifax and Cox Enterprises maintain a strong presence in the city. Business travelers can choose from a range of upscale hotels with extensive meeting facilities, including Ritz-Carlton properties in Downtown and Buckhead, a Four Seasons and a Loews in Midtown, and The St. Regis in Buckhead.
The suburbs are also experiencing corporate growth. Atlanta Tech Village in Buckhead, established in 2012, attracts technology startups to a renovated 100,000-square-foot building that houses innovative firms and shared services. In Dunwoody, State Farm Insurance is opening a 400,000-square-foot customer service center near Perimeter Mall. In Alpharetta, athenahealth is expanding its Southeast hub. One of the largest redevelopment efforts, Ponce City Market, is a $200 million adaptive reuse project converting a 2 million-square-foot former Sears building in the Old Fourth Ward into a mixed-use complex of restaurants, shops, offices and residences, scheduled to open in spring 2014.
Scenic Drives
Drive through some of Atlanta’s oldest neighborhoods along Ponce de Leon Avenue, Lullwater Road, North Decatur Road and Clifton Road near Emory University and the Fernbank Museum.
The 21-mile Piedmont Scenic Byway begins east of Atlanta and runs through the Ocmulgee Forest. Along the route, travelers encounter historic Creek and Cherokee sites, the Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge, Civil War battlefields and antebellum plantations.
For mountain scenery, follow the Appalachian Foothills Parkway: take Interstate 575 and travel along GA 515 and GA 52, passing Brasstown Bald, Amicalola Falls, the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chattahoochee National Forest across roughly 60 scenic miles.