The office and retail complex long known as CNN Center has a new name: The Center. The building's owner, Florida-based CP Group, announced the change in a news release, taking the network's initials off a downtown address that CNN has now left behind.
The announcement follows by about a month the removal of the red-and-white CNN sign, a 5,000-pound aluminum piece that had stood on the sidewalk outside the complex. According to the release, CP Group partner Chris Eachus said the new name is intended to keep part of the building's history as an Atlanta landmark and visitor stop while carrying the property into a period without its former anchor tenant. In the release, Eachus described the goal as creating "a unifying destination for commerce, culture and connection."
Who owns it and what is for lease
CP Group did not buy the campus alone. It and Rialto Capital Management, another Florida-based real estate firm, acquired the office and retail property in 2021 for $164 million. Roughly 1.1 million square feet of office space inside The Center is available for lease, according to the report. CBRE is leading the office leasing effort, and Healey Weatherholtz Properties is handling retail. Coleman Weatherholtz of that firm said the team is already talking with several retail concepts that are new to the Atlanta market.
CP Group has floated more than one direction for the property, including turning part of the building into several hundred apartments. In recent months, though, the emphasis has been on signing office tenants, with close to 500,000 square feet of workspace promoted in an online marketing brochure.
Nicole Goldsmith, a senior vice president with CBRE in Atlanta, said she believes the location gives The Center an advantage. Her case, in her words: as companies keep prioritizing well-located office space with plenty of amenities to attract and retain talent, "they would be hard-pressed to find a more perfect fit than The Center."
Neighbors on every side
The complex sits within walking distance of the Georgia World Congress Center, Centennial Olympic Park, the Georgia Aquarium, the World of Coca-Cola and the College Football Hall of Fame. It also shares a roof and several connections with State Farm Arena. Hawks lead owner Antony Ressler told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he intends to support the owners' plans, saying the team's role is to back whatever they are trying to build. "I'm looking for a successful building that helps downtown," he said.
A name that has changed before
CNN was not the first identity for this site. It began as the Omni Complex, developed by Atlanta real estate figure Tom Cousins. That earlier version held the Omni Coliseum, once home to the Hawks and the Flames, along with the Omni hotel, office space, a large atrium and an ice skating rink. For a short time, part of the campus also housed the World of Sid and Marty Krofft theme park, tied to the creators of the 1960s children's show H.R. Pufnstuf.
The offices stayed mostly empty until CNN set up its headquarters there in 1987. The network effectively shifted its headquarters to New York in 2019, and in January 2023 CNN said it would move its Atlanta operations entirely to the 30-acre Turner Techwood campus in Midtown, near where the network got its start.
Whether the new name catches on is its own question. Atlantans still sometimes call Truist Park and Truist Plaza by the old SunTrust name, and Chicago's Willis Tower is still Sears Tower to plenty of people.
Reported by Rough Draft Atlanta.
