With several ribbon cuttings planned for downtown Atlanta this year, 2014 could be the “biggest year for downtown Atlanta since the 1996 Olympics,” said A.J. Robinson, the president of Central Atlanta Progress. He believes the current “surge of activity” in downtown Atlanta is unlike anything the city has seen in decades.
Each January, the New York Times publishes a Places to Go issue, and each year, local residents wonder why Atlanta was overlooked. When The New York Times put not only Atlanta, but downtown Atlanta on its list of 52 Places to Go in 2014, it was testimony to what Robinson and other local leaders were predicting: a revolutionary year for the city.
“It’s all just very exciting,” Robinson said. “Being recognized by an international publication that reaches all over the world, you couldn’t have paid for that kind of coverage. It’s just very exciting, particularly for those of us who have been working on all of these things for so long, to see that the world knows about them bodes well for the future.”
Atlanta is slated for several grand openings in 2014, but the center of attention is on the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, scheduled to open in May next to the Centennial Olympic Park and the Georgia Aquarium. The 42,000-square-foot, world-class museum in the heart of downtown Atlanta will feature galleries dedicated to exploring stories of civil and human rights.
By the summer, visitors will be able to take the new Atlanta Streetcar on a 2.7-mile loop that will link Centennial Park to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center and several other stops as well. Another attraction downtown, the 94,000-square-foot College Football Hall of Fame, is expected to open in time for the fall kickoff of the 2014 NCAA season.
Kathryn Rusche, public relations coordinator for Central Atlanta Progress, thinks it’s going to be an excellent positive change for the area.
“It’s going to put downtown Atlanta in a new light,” Rusche said. “With all these openings, renovations and events, between 2012 and 2014, we’ve had several billion dollars in investment, which has created this huge surge of investment happening downtown, and people really wanting to be in the center of the city.”
With international investments flowing into downtown Atlanta as well, according to Robinson, the city is heading in the right direction. Leaders believe that the downtown area will become revitalized by welcoming these new museums and streetcars in 2014.
In fact, in December 2013, Bisnow, a media outlet for business and real estate events, hosted a panel in Atlanta to discuss the “Future of Downtown.” Robinson keynoted the meeting, which focused on the continued perceptions that downtown faces, particularly safety concerns and the belief that no one is there at night and on weekends. Most panelists were hopeful that the introduction of a Downtown Streetcar this year will add some energy to the area, encouraging office workers and students to move around the space more during the day.
“The streetcar, and making everything more accessible is going to be great,” Rusche said. “I think we’re definitely going in the right direction. This year is going to be a landmark year for downtown Atlanta, and it’s just going to continue to get better after that.”
Along with these downtown projects, there are major transformative changes for the upcoming years as well. Some of these include a new Falcons stadium, a massive multi-modal transportation hub near Philips Arena and mixed-use projects around Turner Field. And starting this year, city officials have promised investments in cleanliness and public-safety measures, focusing on the stretch of road that runs by Underground Atlanta between Five Points and the beginning of Peachtree Street.
Could the stars be aligning this year to lift downtown to a more attractive status, or is it too far gone?
“It’s all very exciting and positive for the city,” Robinson said. “We in Atlanta take some of these things for granted, because we can go anytime, but the ability to be able to do all this and just walk to it, and the streetcar for that matter, is a real plus for Atlanta’s tourism and the future of tourism here.”
