Following nearly a decade of big talk, scrapped development plans, and revived hope, redevelopment of the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center was showing signs of an actual timeline as of early 2024 -- the clearest one yet for when heavy equipment might finally start work on the long-idle Old Fourth Ward property.
Project spearhead Atlanta Housing announced it had lined up Georgia 4 percent low-income housing tax credits to partially fund the redevelopment, with additional support being sought through HUD and Invest Atlanta. Per 11Alive, Atlanta Housing hoped to see excavation begin that summer for phase one, with actual construction following as soon as that November.
The first phase called for a 148-unit senior housing building on the property's northeast section, across from Renaissance Park -- all-affordable, one-bedroom units around 600 square feet each, with a roof deck, ground-floor café, plaza, and underground parking. Other early-stage plans included converting the 1960s Performing Arts Center into a modern multi-use theater, plus a new Atlanta Public Schools performing-arts campus on site.
Atlanta Housing picked its development team -- The Republic Family of Companies, The Michaels Organization, and Atlanta-based, minority-owned Sophy Capital -- back in 2022, the third team to take a crack at the property since the lights went out at the Civic Center in 2014. That November, the agency entered a Master Development Agreement with the group's newly formed LLC, Atlanta Civic Center Partners, to redevelop 4.36 acres where Old Fourth Ward meets downtown. Officials said their goal was to have some aspect of the project visible for World Cup visitors in summer 2026 -- though the meeting's attendees raised a lasting concern: all 1,300 planned units around the full 19-acre site would be rentals, with no path to homeownership for residents.
The first new building at the site would eventually top out on Pine Street in August 2026, delivering on at least part of that timeline.
Original reporting by Josh Green for Urbanize Atlanta, published February 2024.