What happens when a part of your city is rediscovered? Buildings are refreshed with new coats of paint, streets are repaved, and bike lanes are added. For many Atlantans, however, Downtown has long been viewed as a hassle—a place you pass through getting to the Benz, State Farm, the Tabernacle, or the pesky courthouse.
After a generation or two of perceiving Downtown as an inconvenience, we Atlantans minimize our visits, forget the legacy of those who came before us, and lose sight of the very reasons we chose to call this city home.
GO DEEPER WITH ROUGH DRAFT: More coverage of the 2025 Atlanta Downtown Annual Meeting & Awards Celebration
If 2024 demonstrated anything, it showcased the tides have turned and a new generation of Atlantans is rediscovering our once forgotten Downtown. Centennial Yards $5.5B development sprouted up and topped off their first two major buildings, The Mitchell and Hotel Phoenix. Underground Atlanta hosted over 1 million visitors across their eclectic portfolio of music clubs book-ended by our legendary New Year’s Eve Peach Drop. South Downtown opened the Atlanta Tech Village – Sylvan, 30,000 square feet of co-working space out of a 115-year-old nationally historic registered former hotel.
At Atlanta Ventures and South Downtown, we have 50+ historic buildings left to renovate. These, along with at least 5 other multi-hundred million projects are in the works. Downtown may have once been the land of broken promises and undelivered dreams, but now downtown has a cadre of local owners—which hasn’t occurred in generations—who are tapping into the depths of Atlanta’s entrepreneurial spirit. The same spirit that made us the commerce capital of the South, earned us the 1996 Olympic Games, and made Atlanta the hip hop capital of the world. The spirit of Atlanta’s hustle is on full display Downtown. Come by to witness it; after all, the only constant in Downtown is dramatic and transformative change.
