Anyone who's wandered the blocks north and west of the Georgia World Congress Center and noticed a distinctive lack of vibrancy -- or buildings, period -- hasn't been imagining things. In May 2024, the initial steps of a potentially billion-dollar plan emerged that could make the 220-acre, state-owned campus feel less like a fortress and more like a natural extension of downtown.
Atlanta-based architecture firm HKS unveiled a master plan for mixed-use growth around the GWCC to one of the authority's committees -- the agency's first master plan since 2008, before the convention center's major expansion, Mercedes-Benz Stadium's construction, and other campus updates. Per the Atlanta Business Chronicle, the plan could generate between $1.1 and $1.3 billion in hotel rooms, housing, offices, and retail space on land that sits underused today -- with funding sources and development partners still undetermined.
Four potential sites anchor the plan: the Blue Lot, a surface parking lot west of the GWCC along Northside Drive; the Yellow Lot and its adjacent marshaling yard fronting Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard (briefly considered for Mercedes-Benz Stadium a decade earlier); a site just south of Centennial Olympic Park next to the GWCC/CNN Center MARTA station; and connections tied to the 1.7-mile Westside BeltLine Connector trail. Early concepts call for a bridge over Northside Drive linking Blue Lot redevelopment to the main convention facilities, apartments and a grocery store on the Yellow Lot, and a new hotel with food and beverage space near the MARTA station.
The study landed amid a broader wave of GWCCA activity: the authority's 976-room Signia by Hilton had opened that January as downtown's tallest new hotel in nearly four decades, and GWCCA had separately issued an RFQ that same April to redevelop its 11-acre Home Depot Backyard into an entertainment district. HKS was set to continue studies through the year, with GWCCA staff diving into specifics during a September retreat.
Original reporting by Josh Green for Urbanize Atlanta, published May 2024.
