Centennial Yards starting entertainment district, limits Gulch parking

During the entertainment district’s construction, employees of the Richard B. Russell Federal Building, which houses the main federal courthouse, will still have access to their private parking. The Ruby Lot near Fairlie Street, which is managed by the Hawks, will be unaffected.

Centennial Yards’ Lot A will preserve 275 paid public spots, jury parking spots and spaces used by the Hawks in the evenings for events and games.

Credit: Courtesy rendering

Credit: Courtesy rendering

Construction fences lined the border of the Gulch’s main parking lot Monday morning, lying roughly 40 feet below the surrounding viaducts. Centennial Yards Company, the subsidiary of developer CIM Group, plans a roughly 500,000-square-foot entertainment district consisting of a 5,000-seat arena, a 14-story hotel, two retail and restaurant buildings and a plaza capable of holding large gatherings.

The entertainment district is the core of the $5 billion Centennial Yards redevelopment. Construction is expected to conclude before Atlanta assumes its role as a 2026 World Cup host city, providing a new space for thousands of sports fans to gather in the shadow of Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The construction brings an end to public parking and massive tailgating events within the Gulch’s depths. The developer, however, views this as a necessary transition period that will provide sports fans, tourists and locals with a better gathering space and experience in a few years.

“This will be the Central Park or Times Square (of Centennial Yards),” said Brian McGowan, CEO of Centennial Yards, the CIM executive helming the project.

Credit: Courtesy Gensler

Credit: Courtesy Gensler

The Gulch has sat dormant for decades, only coming to life as thousands flock to park, set up tents and barbecue before big events such as Falcons games, United matches and Hawks tip-offs. But those days were numbered as soon as CIM Group entered the picture and pitched one of the largest development projects in Atlanta history.

The Centennial Yards initial vision was to remake the Gulch’s 50 acres of rail lines and parking lots into a $5 billion mini-city of office towers, apartments, hotels and retail space alongside a new street grid that could span up to 12 million square feet. The city of Atlanta in 2018 approved an incentive package valued up to $1.9 billion, the largest in city history, to support the redevelopment effort.

CIM has several projects within the Gulch underway. But in mid-June, the city’s development authority approved the issuance of some $557 million in bonds to help support construction of the entertainment district, the first time CIM has tapped into the mix of future sales and property tax revenue the city has allotted for Gulch redevelopment. The incentive agreement requires at least 4 million square feet of future development.

Credit: Miguel Martinez

Credit: Miguel Martinez

The project’s scale has reduced in the following years, with CIM focusing on hotel, apartments and the forthcoming entertainment district rather than office towers. McGowan, who said his team is actively marketing to office tenants before building new workspace, said current plans include about 6 million to 7 million square feet of mixed-use development.

McGowan said Centennial Yard’s Lot B is closed to the public alongside a portion of Lot A during the district’s construction. Signs with detour and alternative parking directions were visible on major roads around Centennial Yards. The CNN Deck is currently unaffected, but a corner of the deck will be demolished at a later date to make way for the entertainment district, which will alter some of its parking availability.

Various parties have long-term parking rights at the CNN deck that don’t expire until 2038, which McGowan said will have to be renegotiated before the full deck can be redeveloped. The Richard B. Russell Federal Building’s surface parking lot within Centennial Yards and will require replacement parking during later development phases.

Credit: Miguel Martinez

Credit: Miguel Martinez

Several MARTA stations provide close access to Centennial Yards and its neighboring event venues. Those stations include Five Points, GWCC/CNN Center and Vine City. But pedestrian access to the Five Points station is expected to end later this month until the start of World Cup matches in 2026 as MARTA starts its extensive renovation of the downtown transit hub. Passengers will be able to change trains at Five Points, though bus service will also be redirected during the project.

There will be some large downtown events in the next few months that will act as trial periods for Gulch parking and travel for the next few years.

Megan Thee Stallion, who saw her concerts impacted by Atlanta’s six-day water outage crisis, is scheduled to perform Tuesday at State Farm Arena, followed by Friday and Saturday performances by Chris Brown. The United’s next home game is July 17, and Mercedes-Benz Stadium will play host to Chelsea F.C. vs Club America on July 31. The Georgia World Congress Center will play host to Atlanta Public Schools’ “Back to School Bash” on July 20 and its summer commencement July 24 through 26.

McGowan said people can receive emails on parking updates by signing up at centennialyards.com or by following its social media channels, which is “@centennialyards” on all major platforms.

“There’s going to be some short-term discomfort,” he said. “But when it’s done, it’ll be fantastic for everybody.”

Future of Downtown

This story is part of an occasional series by the AJC to look at the future of Atlanta’s downtown. Several high-profile developments are poised to bring billions of dollars into the city’s core while it continues to grapple with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and a challenging real estate financing market. Downtown will also soon garner international attention when the World Cup comes to Atlanta in 2026, providing a deadline for the city and downtown stakeholders to make promised improvements.