Downtown Atlanta has The Stitch. Now it has The Pitch.
That is the name developers and Invest Atlanta officials have given a cleanup and activation project planned for the Atlanta Constitution Building, the 1940s landmark at 143 Alabama Street that has spent decades as one of downtown's most conspicuous eyesores.
The money
According to an Invest Atlanta committee agenda, the city's economic development arm is planning a grant of up to $3.5 million from the Westside Tax Allocation District Ascension Fund to set the rehabilitation in motion. The full conversion is expected to cost $35.2 million.
The end state is 46 affordable housing units plus 11,600 square feet of ground-floor commercial space at the corner of Alabama and Forsyth streets. Invest Atlanta selected Wisconsin-based affordable housing developer Gorman and Company for the job in October, with Gensler designing.
Two phases, split by a World Cup
The sequencing is unusual and deliberate. Phase one, beginning in May, covers stabilization and cleanup of the structure plus daylighting of its ground-floor commercial space, finishing a month before World Cup matches begin downtown in June 2026. Digital signage is also part of the first phase.
During the tournament, the site becomes The Pitch: an activated space for cultural events and art programming tied to the World Cup. A diagram included with Invest Atlanta paperwork shows a watch party screen, food trucks, a DJ booth, a kids play area and a pavilion arranged around the old building.
Phase two, the actual conversion to housing, starts in August 2026, within weeks of the World Cup crowds clearing out. Plans call for one- to three-bedroom units.
Why the order matters
Stabilizing a long-vacant building is expensive and produces nothing a passerby can use. Putting a temporary public program on the site during the single highest-traffic month in downtown's recent history extracts value from the intermediate state instead of fencing it off for a year.
It also puts a hard deadline on work that has slipped before. The Constitution Building has outlasted more than one redevelopment plan; this one has a date it cannot move.
Original reporting by Josh Green for Urbanize Atlanta, published February 2025.
