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Atlanta’s South Downtown neighborhood, nestled a few blocks from the Five Points Marta Station and in the shadows of Mercedes Benz Stadium, is far from a hub for commerce today. Street-level parking lots sit largely vacant. Most buildings are abandoned; faded awnings the only signs of businesses that have long since shuttered their doors.
In the middle of the work day, you’d be hard pressed to find much car or foot traffic.
But it wasn’t always that way. The area was once the economic heartbeat of the city, hosting a flood of visitors from around the region after the famous Terminus Station opened in 1905.
Photo from Atlanta Ventures’ blog
It was an entrepreneurial hub at the turn of the last century, with Coca-Cola, Havertys, and the once-prominent national retail chain Rich’s growing roots in the neighborhood.
Now, Atlanta entrepreneurs are looking to transform South Downtown into a thriving live-work-play neighborhood once again. And startups are set to lead that building-by-building transformation.
What South Broad Street looks like today
BEHIND THE DEAL
Late last year Atlanta Ventures, the team behind the nationally-recognized startup hub Atlanta Tech Village, announced it has purchased the neighborhood properties previously owned by German real estate developer Newport.
Revitalization efforts started back in 2016 when Newport purchased the 10 city blocks and its 53 buildings in South Downtown. Aggressive plans were laid out to bring back business opportunities to the area. But the pandemic and other macroeconomic factors halted the progress, and the Newport plan fell into foreclosure earlier in 2023.
Atlanta Ventures’ Jon Birdsong, now CEO at SoDo Atlanta, said he and his team had been keeping tabs on the project over the years, mostly as engaged Atlanta citizens interested in the future of the city.
But the process of buying the Newport real estate holdings started with a single text message sent by David Cummings on…
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