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Development
Atlanta

$1B master plan could replace expansive downtown parking lots

Mixed-use development, pedestrian connections wanted for 20 acres near home of NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, NFL's Falcons

<p>A photo illustration of Georgia World Congress Center Authority executive director Frank Poe along with the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia (Getty, Google Maps, Georgia World Congress Center Authority)</p>

A photo illustration of Georgia World Congress Center Authority executive director Frank Poe along with the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia (Getty, Google Maps, Georgia World Congress Center Authority)

Atlanta is the latest city looking to put seemingly endless stretches of parking lots to alternate use.

The state-run Georgia World Congress Center Authority has a master plan to redevelop 20 acres around the titular convention center, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The ideas in the plan could cost upward of $1 billion, but there’s no financing in place as this proposal works through the early stages.

The redevelopment space encompasses parking lots north and west of the convention center. The lots would be turned into a mixed-use community with green space and pedestrian infrastructure.

The plan includes housing, office space and grocery stores, as well as connections to the Atlanta Westside Trail and a pedestrian bridge over Northside Drive. Deck parking would likely replace the surface parking lots.

Making the area more pedestrian friendly is seen as a priority, as a plethora of multilane roads make it hard to traverse across the Congress Center’s 3.9 million square feet.

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The master plan came to light during the authority’s recent monthly board meeting. The state-run authority is also responsible for operations at Centennial Olympic Park, Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the local Signia by Hilton hotel.

The short-term goals for the plan and its financing could be identified by year’s end, according to the authority’s executive director Frank Poe.

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“This master plan steps outside the four walls of the Congress Center and starts looking at the larger property environment that the authority is responsible for,” Poe told the outlet. “Is there a higher use of that property?”

“This is a framework,” Sheba Ross, partner at architecture firm HKS, told the publication. “It’s a kit of parts that tests all of these ideas.”

Separately, the authority is evaluating a proposal to turn the former Georgia Dome site into a mixed-use development.

— Holden Walter-Warner

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Convention Centerevent spaceMaster Plan