Newsroom
Get the story behind the places, faces, and current events shaping the downtownATL district.
FIFA has revealed Atlanta's World Cup group-stage schedule, with Spain — ranked No. 1 globally — set to play two matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The city could host Spain up to five times if the 2010 champions advance deep into the tournament.
Atlanta Housing scheduled a ceremony for a $60 million, 148-unit senior building, the first phase of the long-dormant Old Fourth Ward site's redevelopment.
Mike and Shyretha Sheats bring Mule Train farm-to-table to the former Miller's Rexall Drug Store. Broad Street gets a $6 million overhaul. A half-acre pocket park with a 20x25 stage area starts construction. The maker space takes over the former HL Green store. And World Cup activation opportunities open up.
Central Atlanta Progress released its State of Downtown 2025 report in December 2025, covering demographics, talent, real estate, visitation, and the public realm, followed in March 2026 by an Impact Report counting $5.2 billion in new investment and three million pounds of trash removed.
A Walton Street bar that has hosted game-day and concert crowds since 2011 has a new owner.
MARTA renamed the stop between the stadiums to Sports, Entertainment and Convention District, updating signage and maps ahead of the World Cup.
Six months after the overhaul resumed, crews started peeling off the station's half-century-old concrete roof. A 32,000-square-foot mass-timber canopy replaces it.
Cushman & Wakefield is running the site search, with Clark Construction and Cooper Carry on board, and public dollars among the funding sources under discussion.
Hotel Phoenix, a 19-story luxury hotel and the first hotel to open within Centennial Yards, has set a Dec. 1 opening date—marking a major milestone in the $5 billion downtown Atlanta redevelopment.
Foundations are poured for three single-family houses at Fortune Street and Ralph McGill Boulevard, a corner boarded up or empty for over a decade near Ponce City Market and the Eastside Trail.
Mayor Andre Dickens joined a groundbreaking for McAuley Station Phase II at 300 Chamberlain St., a four-story building with 97 rent-restricted apartments for residents 55 and older.
With Atlanta's first 2026 World Cup match roughly 216 days out, Atlanta Ventures is offering about 10 renovated South Downtown spaces on two- and three-month 'summer leases.'
Illustrator George F. Baker III is opening Foster, a goods shop and event space, at Underground Atlanta.
Smorgasburg's opening weekend drew over 10,000 attendees. Dr. Key opens Village Books on Hotel Row. Glide Pizza announces its fourth location with a DJ booth. Mayor Dickens walks the neighborhood. And Bryan Capps uncovers an 1850 daguerreotype — the oldest known photograph of Atlanta.
After four years of construction, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights on Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard reopened on November 8, 2025 — with $57 million in upgrades, 24,000 new square feet, and a renewed mission at the edge of Centennial Olympic Park.
