Newsroom
Get the story behind the places, faces, and current events shaping the downtownATL district.
In November 2019, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced that Atlanta would not hold the Peach Drop for New Year's Eve — the first cancellation in the event's 30-year history, driven by the sale of Underground Atlanta and logistical complications.
In 2019, the Metro Atlanta Chamber celebrated 160 years — a span that included founding the city's first business advocacy organization in 1859, landing three Super Bowls, recruiting the third-highest concentration of Fortune 500 headquarters in America, and launching ChooseATL to attract the next generation.
Future, a cabaret, restaurant and dance club designed for LGBTQ+ patrons, will occupy a 14,000 square-foot space in downtown Atlanta's redeveloped Underground project. Owners Keith Young and Hoosh Mishu secured a 10-year lease at the southwest corner of Pryor and Alabama streets.
By 2019, Atlanta United was averaging 52,000 fans per game — more than double the MLS average — and ranking in the global top 10 for club attendance. The supporter culture that built that number was as diverse as the city itself.
The Atlanta nonprofit that uses soccer to teach leadership, discipline, and job skills to underserved youth celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2019 — by then operating mini-soccer fields at MARTA stations including Five Points and building what it calls the world's first transit league.
Central Atlanta Progress proposed capping three-quarters of a mile of Interstate 75/85 with parks, walkways, and green space — an idea modeled on Dallas's Klyde Warren Park that could stitch downtown Atlanta's east and west sides back together.
The building at 152 Nassau Street in downtown Atlanta — where Fiddlin' John Carson recorded country music's first major hit in 1923 — faces demolition for a Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville Resort. Preservationists are fighting to save it.
The Atlanta Hawks announced a 20-year naming rights deal with State Farm, renaming Philips Arena as State Farm Arena. The change accompanied a $192.5 million renovation that transformed the venue into one of the most modern arenas in the NBA.
Cabbagetown grew up around the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill, built by Appalachian families who grew cabbages in their front yards and cooked them in shotgun houses so close together the whole neighborhood smelled like soup.
Castleberry Hill's story begins with bootleggers, political riots, and a merchant named Daniel Castleberry who helped rebuild the neighborhood after it was burned to the ground. Today it's the National Park Service's pick for Atlanta's most complete surviving warehouse district.
MLS awarded the 2018 All-Star Game to Mercedes-Benz Stadium after Atlanta United's inaugural season shattered every attendance record in the league — including a single-game mark of 71,874 against Toronto FC.
The $1.6 billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium opened in August 2017 with a retractable roof, 4,000 solar panels, and a FIFA-compliant field — immediately positioning Atlanta as one of 39 U.S. cities under consideration for the 2026 World Cup.
In 2017, Arthur Blank's Atlanta United launched its inaugural MLS season with 30,000 season ticket holders, a world-class roster, and a sold-out temporary home at Georgia Tech — months before Mercedes-Benz Stadium opened its doors.
At the 2016 A3C festival, photographer Cam Kirk was building something larger than a portfolio — a visual archive of Atlanta's hip-hop scene that aimed to change the perception of the genre and the city that shaped it.
In August 2016, Central Atlanta Progress publicly floated a $300 million idea: build a platform over three-quarters of a mile of I-75/85 and turn the highway trench that divides downtown from Midtown into usable urban space.
