The first ground-up tower at Centennial Yards has reached full height and finally has a name. The Mitchell, a 19-story residential building at the corner of Centennial Olympic Park Drive and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, has topped out, closing the structural phase of the megaproject's first new building.
The name comes from Mitchell Street, which runs along the building's southern edge and has, in the words of project officials, “historically been a place of innovation and culture in Atlanta.” That is a nod worth making in a district whose defining feature for decades was the absence of anything at all — the Gulch was a sunken expanse of rail beds and surface parking, and the streets around it carried names with more history than traffic.
The building holds 304 units across 300,000 square feet, with one full floor dedicated to resident amenities: a pool deck with indoor-outdoor zones, coworking areas, a resident lounge, a fitness center, and a dog run and pet spa. At street level, 16,000 square feet of retail with deep patios is meant to activate the sidewalk directly across from Mercedes-Benz Stadium entrances. Rents have not been announced.
The Mitchell broke ground in November 2022 and is expected to deliver in 2025. Next door, construction continues on the Anthem, a 292-key hotel also scheduled to top out this year. Both sit adjacent to the 8-acre entertainment hub anchored by a Cosm immersive dome, which is being built against the June 2026 start of Atlanta's eight World Cup matches.
Centennial Yards president Brian McGowan framed the residential piece as the point of the exercise, saying revitalizing downtown “requires an increased residential presence” to improve vibrancy, safety, and appeal. That argument has been made about downtown Atlanta for a long time without much to show for it. The Mitchell is the first time in this development cycle that the argument comes with a topped-out building attached.
Original reporting by Josh Green for Urbanize Atlanta, published August 2024.
