Big new stadiums often come with big promises to revitalize the areas surrounding the stadium site. The new stadium for the Atlanta Falcons, slated to open in 2017, is no exception. The website dedicated to the stadium promises to bring “$400 million in total economic impact” to the city of Atlanta and to Georgia. Such claims are often met with skepticism, and perhaps deservedly so. But the Falcons stadium, which broke ground on May 19, 2014, is generating a lot of buzz around the city and beyond, and serious efforts to redevelop and revitalize the blighted areas surrounding the stadium site are already underway.
The new stadium site is located just south of the Georgia Dome, between two MARTA stations on Atlanta’s West Side. It is surrounded by several old, impoverished neighborhoods, including Vine City, Castleberry Hill, and English Avenue. Falcons owner Arthur Blank and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed have both stated that these communities must be revitalized while the stadium is being constructed.
To that end, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation has created the Westside Neighborhood Prosperity Fund, a $15 million fund aimed at making the Vine City, Castleberry Hill, and English Avenue communities “safer, healthier, and more prosperous.” The fund will provide grants to organizations that initiate projects and programs to foster economic development, improved safety and crime prevention, better educational opportunities, and healthier living in these communities.
The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation has created one such program of its own. Westside Works is a four-week, intensive program that teaches construction skills to people living close to the new Falcons stadium. Graduates obtain seven credentials that are directly applicable to the construction industry and are even rewarded with a job offer at the end of the course. As of August 15, a total of 27 students had graduated from the program, which began this summer.
Beyond these charitable endeavors, a number of good old-fashioned development projects are germinating around the stadium site. Several hotels have already sprung up in the area, thanks to a variety of popular new attractions, such as the new National Center for Civil and Human Rights and the College Football Hall of Fame. Developer H. J. Russell & Co. plans to build a three- to four-story, mixed-use development on property close to Haynes and Chapel Streets near the stadium. And in an ambitious project that combines altruism with pragmatism, Friendship Baptist Church, which sold its historic sanctuary to the city and the Falcons to make way for the new stadium, has partnered with a nationally known development firm to revitalize at least 22 acres of land around the stadium.
Friendship Baptist and St. Louis-based McCormack Baron Salazar are currently developing the master plan for a development they call “Downtown West.” The plan will include affordable and market-rate housing, retail space, and a number of community amenities—including a sports complex with swimming and basketball, child care and after-school facilities, tutoring programs, and a new Friendship Baptist Church.
In a deal that closed on August 29, Friendship Baptist partnered with the city of Atlanta to buy most of the 37 acres owned by now-defunct Morris Brown College. Friendship paid $3.875 million to buy the vacant Middleton Towers, the Morris Brown gym, and the parking lot across from the towers—a total of about five acres. The entire cost of the land sale was $14.825 million, with the city’s development agency, Invest Atlanta, paying the balance of nearly $11 million.
In addition to these five acres of Morris Brown property, Friendship already owns three acres on Mitchell Street across from its now-demolished sanctuary, as well as just over 13 acres along Northside Drive and Mitchell Street. The church is working to coordinate its development plans with other parties interested in the Westside communities and hopes that the area will adopt the Downtown West name as part of its “rebranding,” according to the August 22 “Saporta Report” in the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
Thanks to these investments in the community surrounding the stadium, those who have high hopes for downtown Atlanta’s West side have reason to feel optimistic. The 71,000-seat, 1.8-million-square-foot stadium’s innovative retractable roof and open-air concourse—as well as its ability to accommodate major league soccer—are generating excitement that could draw further investment to the area. The Falcons have set up a web cam showing the progress of construction on the stadium at http://newstadium.atlantafalcons.com/webcam/. If all goes well, additional web cams will be needed to keep up with the many development efforts in and around the stadium site!
Blog contributed by Hugh Rader, Advisor with Cresa Atlanta. Hugh has more than eight years of experience as a tenant representative and is an expert on the Downtown real estate submarket. For information on developments in Downtown West and around the Falcons Stadium, contact Hugh at 404-446-1597 or hrader@cresa.com.