An investment group led by two Atlanta tech figures wants to purchase dozens of historic buildings and acres of vacant parking lots in downtown Atlanta from German real estate developer Newport after the German firm’s prior redevelopment efforts fell apart.
David Cummings and his co-investor Jon Birdsong, the duo behind Atlanta Ventures and the popular Atlanta Tech Village business incubator in Buckhead, are in the process of acquiring all of Newport’s properties, which collectively are known as South Downtown. The complex real estate transactions, which would save the properties from being foreclosed upon by their various lenders, is a significant development after a prior sales effort with another Atlanta area developer fell through.
April Stammel, a Newport executive in Atlanta, confirmed the transaction to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and that she will join the new development team. Cummings and Atlanta Ventures declined to comment.
Terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed. But Cummings and his partners have begun the process of acquiring the land and buildings. The transaction was first reported Tuesday by the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
Cummings and Birdsong wrote in a blog post that they want to “ensure South Downtown maintains and accelerates the momentum” started by Newport. They listed 2026 when Atlanta is a host city for the World Cup as a deadline to make progress on their vision for the area.
Credit: Atlanta Ventures
Credit: Atlanta Ventures
Cummings told the Chronicle he intends to make South Downtown the second location of Atlanta Tech Village. He said he plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to redevelop the area over the next several years, aiming to incorporate low-rise housing, local startups, restaurants and connect the area to the nearby Georgia State University and Atlanta University Center.
Newport CEO Olaf Kunkat wrote on LinkedIn earlier Tuesday that his company agreed to transfer the entire South Downtown portfolio to the new owner at the end of the year. Kunkat did not respond to a request for comment.
The announcement comes after a turbulent year for Newport’s efforts in Atlanta. The German firm for years has headed one of the city’s largest adaptive reuse projects. The company’s redevelopment work stalled early in the year due to global economic pressures.
In its wake, construction stopped. A deal to sell the entire portfolio to a local developer Braden Fellman Group over the summer fell through. And all of Newport’s Atlanta properties were advertised for foreclosure over the last two months, but each public auction has been postponed by its respective lender.
‘Back to the future’
Cummings and Birdsong turned an aging suburban style office building in Buckhead into Atlanta Tech Village, a hive of tech startups. But in South Downtown, the pair and their partners are taking on another challenge altogether.
South Downtown has endured decades of under investment and the leaking out of businesses and residents. The new would-be developers are also taking on this challenge in a post-pandemic environment when many companies are using less office space and amid a high-interest rate environment that has cooled expansion activities.
But the investors are also likely acquiring the land and building at a substantial discount. It’s unclear if the new owners plan to follow through on Newport’s plans to build hundreds of new downtown residential units as part of their project.
A.J. Robinson, president of downtown civic organization Central Atlanta Progress, told the AJC the sale “is a great outcome.” He added that South Downtown was the epicenter of Atlanta’s entrepreneurship community in the mid-1800s, acting as a commerce, banking and hotel hub.
He said the new owners’ focus on technology and propping up small businesses is a full-circle twist for the long-neglected corner of downtown.
“It’s really kind of back to the future for this particular part of downtown,” he said.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Handing over the reins
Newport come to Atlanta in 2016 and assembled its South Downtown portfolio, which stretched 10 blocks south of Marietta Street and near the Five Points MARTA station. It was the company’s first and only project in North America.
The developer centered its redevelopment vision around renovating the massive 222 Mitchell Street building — the historic former C&S bank building — as part of a revitalized historic Hotel Row. Those projects, Newport hoped, would spur new construction on surrounding parking lots.
Newport had finished restoration work on the Hotel Row block, transforming it into a series of restaurants and creative office spaces. But work on the 222 Mitchell building was halted earlier this year and remains incomplete.
Credit: Katelyn Myrick
Credit: Katelyn Myrick
In July, the firm took the city’s real estate world by surprise and announced it intended to sell the entire portfolio to Braden Fellman Group. However, that deal fell apart by October. Kunkat’s LinkedIn post mentioned that there was a second prospective buyer from New York at some point in 2023 that had not been previously disclosed publicly.
Once the deals fell through, Newport defaulted on five loans totaling about $97 million, triggering the various foreclosure advertisements.
The largest loan, a $75 million note from Miami-based BridgeInvest, backs 18 properties within South Downtown, including 222 Mitchell and several Hotel Row properties. A lawsuit involving that loan and $7 million in unpaid invoices to a contractor for work on 222 Mitchell further complicated matters.
In his post, Kunkat thanked the Atlanta-based Newport team that helmed its South Downtown effort, adding that “the project is in good hands.”
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