Development

The excitement about new development obscures an awkward fact that the city and developers have to reckon with: Downtown already has more buildings than it has people who want to occupy them. It already has more road, rail, and bus capacity than any eastern U.S. downtown south of Washington, D.C. On weekdays, there are plenty of people there. The problem is that, at 5 p.m. on Fridays, the place clears out. Downtown Atlanta is often filled with a large, diverse group of people, but not many of them are residents.

Next month, crews will put the final touches on a 350-foot deep reservoir holding 2.4 billion gallons of water Atlanta can tap in case of an emergency. Later on, they’ll cut the ribbon on the surrounding park, the city’s largest.

When the Fulton County city was incorporated in 2005, officials quickly pinpointed a 15-acre parcel at Roswell Road and Mount Vernon Highway as prime real estate for a new city center.

Hulsey Yard, the 70-acre site owned by CSX is a barren sea of concrete. It could bring residential, retail, commercial, and connectivity to an expanse located between some of Atlanta’s hottest neighborhoods.

On the eve of its milestone birthday, we caught up officials now taking the reins on Atlantic Station’s future for a Q&A about the nearly 3-million-square-foot project’s reboot, its influence, recent challenges, and the uncertain future ahead.

With its own zip code and 2.5 million square feet of offices, homes, restaurants, and behemoth retail anchors, Atlantic Station might seem massive now, but it’s less than half built, with several huge holes remaining. Projects scheduled to break ground in 2018 are planned to add thousands of workers, hundreds of new residences and hotel rooms, and fundamental changes to how certain facets feel.

Atlanta really, really, wants to be the site of Amazon’s HQ2, but we've got some problems that could halt that. How do we fix our issues before the Amazon delegation arrives to inspect our city? Like a steel plate over a pothole, let's cover 'em up.

This summer, a stretch of Spring Street was renamed in honor of Ted Turner. Maybe you heard. Keeping up with our constant street name changes is a challenge, and not a new one: In 1903 the Atlanta Constitution reported that more than 225 city streets had changed names at least once—some as many as seven times.

Relaunched as FlatironCity, the building’s “Next Gen Office Space” (think two-gigabit internet service and fridges stocked with craft beer) was more than 70 percent leased before its grand opening in May.

The bridge has long been a beloved spot to take in one of Atlanta’s best views of the downtown skyline. Now the people who gather along its narrow sidewalk to snap photos of the cityscape will have a little extra room.