Two months after the last World Cup crowds cleared out, South Downtown has put its storefront comeback on a single sheet of paper. District tenants pulled together an illustrated map this week that marks the businesses open, or about to open, in the blocks between Alabama Street and Trinity Avenue, and frames them with the stadiums, hotels and rail stations that surround the neighborhood.
The map reads like a walking loop through the SoDo core. Mitchell Street carries most of the pins: Spiller Park Coffee, Bottle Rocket, Tyde Tate Kitchen, Delilah's Everyday Soul, Crates, Village Books, Brown Toy Box, Friedman's Shoes, Glide Pizza, Ida's Kitchen and El Tesoro. Around the corner on Broad Street, Broad Street BBQ, Brewhouse Cafe and Mule Train ring Founders Green, and The Junction holds down Forsyth Street.
A sidebar lists the hotels within walking distance, including Hotel Phoenix, Signia by Hilton, The Glenn, Reverb by Hard Rock, AC Hotel and The Ritz-Carlton. The legend pitches the district as a five-minute walk to Mercedes-Benz Stadium and six minutes to State Farm Arena, with Five Points two minutes away and the revamped Garnett station drawn in at the south end.
That framing is deliberate. For years, most of what could be said about this part of downtown was about plans. A map with more than a dozen businesses inside a few blocks gives game-day crowds, convention visitors and office workers a concrete reason to walk south of Alabama Street instead of heading straight back to a car or a train.
The second piece of news is residential. 85 Peachtree, the first apartment building in the district, is 23 percent leased as of this week with tours still underway, according to Jon Birdsong, a partner with Atlanta Ventures. The 26-unit building is a conversion of the 1899 Bass Dry Goods Building, long described as Atlanta's original department store. When it came to market this summer, downtownATL toured the new rentals, which lean on transit rather than on-site parking. South Downtown had previewed that leasing push in its February Show Versus Tell update.
Put the two updates side by side and the strategy is plain. The map shows prospective renters what is downstairs and down the block, and every new resident adds weekday foot traffic for the shops and restaurants on it.
Original reporting by Josh Green for Urbanize Atlanta.
