Channing Baker remembers overlooking the expansive hole in downtown Atlanta known as the Gulch in the early 2000s during his time as a student at Morehouse College and Georgia Tech.
On a recent Wednesday, he witnessed the final girder being hoisted into the air to go atop a 19-story hotel that he helped build from within the Gulch’s depths.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
“I never would have thought in a million years that I’d be building a commercial structure (in the Gulch),” he said.
Baker, a fourth-generation contractor, is now a roofing subcontractor for the Centennial Yards project and was among the roughly 500 construction workers who celebrated the Dec. 18 topping out of Hotel Phoenix, the second building to reach its highest point within the 50-acre redevelopment. The construction milestone allowed the workers to enjoy viewing the fruits of their labor — the latest high-rise joining Atlanta’s skyline.
The $5 billion redevelopment between Mercedes-Benz Stadium and MARTA’s Five Points station is among the most challenging construction projects in the Southeast and involves the collective work of thousands. The hotel and its sister apartment tower, called the Mitchell, are expected to open in 2025, becoming the first new buildings erected from the Gulch with several others under construction.
“We generally take it for granted that people actually built those buildings with their bare hands, which is inherently dangerous to do,” Brian McGowan, president of Centennial Yards, said during the topping-out ceremony. “So today is about honoring those people who actually use their hands, their blood, sweat and tears to actually build this building.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
CIM Group, the Los Angeles-based development giant that owns Centennial Yards, is its own general contractor for the buildings under construction. In 2022, it started work on both the hotel and apartment tower, and it broke ground on an 8-acre core entertainment district in mid-2024.
Consisting of an expanse of rail lines and parking lots about 40 feet below the surrounding viaducts, construction crews are working with a cramped space, said Olivia Fru, senior construction manager with CIM Group.
“It’s a very small site. There’s no room for us to just bring a bunch of equipment in, drop that equipment and just start building the way you typically do,” she said. “So logistically, it’s been a challenge.”
Coordination is also a challenge that has to be overcome. CIM Group worked with dozens of subcontractors to handle various aspects of the two high-rises.
Hemely Homez, senior project manager for Gwinnett County-based Eastern Glass and Aluminum, said Hotel Phoenix will require roughly 100,000 square feet of glass to wrap the structure. That’s more than two acres.
“You have to do a lot of coordination up front, making sure that openings are correct and then fabricating in-house all of that metal and glass,” she said. “It takes a huge effort.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Atlanta leaders in 2018 approved an incentive package of up to $1.9 billion — the largest in city history — to support Centennial Yards. Part of that deal established an equal business opportunities goal for 38% of the developer’s business partners and contractors to be women- and minority-led. McGowan said that figure is 39% so far into construction.
Baker started his roofing firm, Evolve Contractors, from the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs, an Atlanta incubator focused on fostering Black-owned small businesses. He said it’s a vital opportunity when a startup construction firm lands a contract working on a big-name project like Centennial Yards.
“It doesn’t matter how eloquent I am, how great of a business guy I am or how good of a roofer I am. If your resume and projects are not names that hold weight, the industry isn’t going to respect you,” Baker said.
Credit: Courtesy Gensler / Centennial Yards
Credit: Courtesy Gensler / Centennial Yards
Since landing the roofing contract for Hotel Phoenix and the Mitchell, he said his company was awarded five subsequent projects that represent $8 million of work. Those include other Atlanta landmarks, including the expansion of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and the redevelopment of the Herndon Homes public housing site in the city’s Westside.
Fru said there’s a sense of pride in working on a project that promises to revitalize the core of the city.
“When I come back here with my kids, I can say, ‘I changed what downtown Atlanta looks like,’” she said. “I’ve been part of something that changed what our landscape down here looks like.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
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.
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