Centennial Yards has revealed the next piece of its $5 billion build-out of the Gulch, and this one is aimed at the days when there is no match, no concert and no convention in town. An early-stage plan filed with the city outlines a 12-story building with roughly 280 apartments and about 62,000 square feet of retail — enough for an estimated 17 tenants — on a site next to the Richard B. Russell Federal Building.
Brian McGowan, who leads the development, frames the project around what he calls the "Tuesday afternoon problem": how downtown retailers survive between big events. His answer is more people living upstairs. The new building would push Centennial Yards to roughly 800 apartments on its way to a planned 2,000 units across the 50-acre district, with residents supplying the seven-day-a-week foot traffic that event crowds cannot.
Unlike the district's core entertainment blocks — home to restaurants, the immersive theater Cosm, a future Live Nation music venue and a planned Virgin Hotels property — this stretch is designed as a quieter, neighborhood-serving extension of the retail spine. Think nail salons and pet day cares rather than pre-match bars, in smaller spaces that bridge the gap between South Downtown's century-old storefronts and Castleberry Hill.
The design, by Atlanta firm Cooper Carry, wraps the building in a copper-toned facade with undulating panels meant to pull pedestrians along the shopfronts. Amenities are slated to include a pool deck, fitness center, coworking space and a dog park, with the unit mix split roughly between one-bedrooms and larger apartments. A parking deck of about 510 spaces would sit below grade across four stories, keeping the structure level with the surrounding viaducts.
The affordability piece is notable. Under its $1.9 billion incentive package with the city, Centennial Yards must reserve 20% of new residential units at subsidized rents or pay an in-lieu fee. Developer CIM Group chose the fee — nearly $8.5 million — for its first residential building, the Mitchell, drawing criticism from urbanist voices including ThreadATL co-founder Darin Givens, who first surfaced the new filing. This time, an as-yet-undetermined number of below-market units are planned in the building itself.
Givens, for his part, welcomed the pedestrian upgrades the project would bring, writing that walking through the heart of the city is about to get better — while urging the developer to trim parking wherever possible.
Construction could begin as soon as late this year. With the World Cup having just showcased a downtown transformed, McGowan says the goal is to keep the construction frenzy rolling until the district is complete.
Original reporting: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (2026-07-02)