After spending as much as a month every year in Atlanta for close to 20 years, earlier this week I made my first trip back since 2004. And the changes are dramatic -- especially the ramped up urbanizing and high-rise apartment development of the Midtown and Buckhead business districts as well as signs of life in the downtown.
Of the rapidly developing, post World War II suburban agglomerations, Denver has been leading the pack in figuring out how to escape a car dependent environment, centering a new hub and spoke light rail system in its downtown and building out its LoDo entertainment district. New development, including multifamily, concentrates around transit stations and the downtown has been reviving.
Atlanta has become one of the most congested far-flung American metros. Now, increasingly empty nesters and career-building singles look to escape commuting hassles by settling in infill locations. Condos and apartments spring up from the northend of downtown through a new "Miracle Mile" in Midtown, at key Marta subway stops along the way to Buckhead, and then along Peachtree Road to the Buckhead Loop at Phipps and Lenox Malls. The skyline starts to fill in with an attractive, dynamic city feel of glass boxes and stone towers along the spine of the interstate and Marta north-south line. In new districts like Atlantic Station people can actually walk to grocery and drug stores, something new and different for most denizens.
The city and private developers also try to figure out how to add more parks and green space, including a green beltway, which would feature mass transit. Downtown also looks at creating a green corridor through an under-utilized concrete canyon near the perennially struggling Underground and there is talk of expanding Piedmont Park. Light rail may go in between Midtown and Downtown to supplement Marta.
In sum, maturing Atlanta starts to act more like a city rather than a subdivision manufacturer.
But for all the good progress, Atlanta gets caught in its enduring hot growth tradition. Given the housing slump and economic downturn, too many condo projects poke up -- anywhere from 3,500 to 7,000 unsold units are in the pipeline or on the market, depending on to whom you listen. And Buckhead office development looks over the top, including several new projects that have just broken ground. Well, some things never change.
© Miller Ryan LLC 2008
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Jonathan D. Miller
A marketing communication strategist who turned to real estate analysis, Jonathan D. Miller is a foremost interpreter of 21st citistate futures – cities and suburbs alike – seen through the lens of lifestyles and market realities. For more than 20 years (1992-2013), Miller authored Emerging Trends in Real Estate, the leading commercial real estate industry outlook report, published annually by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). He has lectures frequently on trends in real estate, including the future of America's major 24-hour urban centers and sprawling suburbs. He also has been author of ULI’s annual forecasts on infrastructure and its What’s Next? series of forecasts. On a weekly basis, he writes the Trendczar blog for GlobeStreet.com, the real estate news website. Outside his published forecasting work, Miller is a prominent communications/institutional investor-marketing strategist and partner in Miller Ryan LLC, helping corporate clients develop and execute branding and communications programs. He led the re-branding of GMAC Commercial Mortgage to Capmark Financial Group Inc. and he was part of the management team that helped build Equitable Real Estate Investment Management, Inc. (subsequently Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, Inc.) into the leading real estate advisor to pension funds and other real institutional investors. He joined the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S. in 1981, moving to Equitable Real Estate in 1984 as head of Corporate/Marketing Communications. In the 1980's he managed relations for several of the country's most prominent real estate developments including New York's Trump Tower and the Equitable Center. Earlier in his career, Miller was a reporter for Gannett Newspapers. He is a member of the Citistates Group and a board member of NYC Outward Bound Schools and the Center for Employment Opportunities.
