Atlanta News

From the Saporta Report:

The Atlanta-based nonprofit Captain Planet Foundation hosted its annual Benefit Gala on Saturday, March 15 — complete with an on-brand “green carpet” for guests’ arrival — and raised more than $500,000 through the night. The gala, one of the largest environmental fundraisers in the city, honored three awardees:  The Captain Planet Foundation nonprofit has been […]

The post Captain Planet Foundation hosts annual benefit gala and honors environmental stewards, raising over half a million appeared first on SaportaReport.

From WABE Local News:

International Transgender Day of Visibility will be recognized on March 31. The day is used to celebrate transgender people and raise awareness about issues that impact them. Quinton Reynolds, the […]

Vision emerges for vacant corner near downtown Connector Josh Green Tue, 03/18/2025 - 15:09 How a long-vacant corner in the northern blocks of downtown could be repurposed for Atlanta visitors is coming into clearer focus. 

Officials with Atlanta-based BCA Studios Architects have recently shared renderings depicting how a dual-branded hotel project could look and function at 524 West Peachtree St., between a major hospital and the Connector freeway. 

Hotel uses have been pitched for the relatively tight, .46-acre corner site—where the 1920s Rosser Building was demolished more than six years ago—for a decade. 

According to BCA Studios, the project will include Georgia’s first Motto by Hilton hotel adjacent to a TownPlace Suites by Marriott, both of them operating independently. Plans call for 381 rooms total, plus a rooftop restaurant and coffee shop at street level. 

Looking north across the two-brand proposal into Midtown. BCA Studios Architects

The 524 West Peachtree St. site where a 1920s building was razed six years ago. Google Maps

The architecture firm counts offices in Atlanta and Gainesville, and its portfolio includes numerous hotel projects around the Sunbelt, including multi-brand high-rise hospitality developments.

The site is situated between the Connector and Emory University Hospital Midtown, directly south of a 3,000-space parking garage that city planners once hailed as being “beautiful” before it debuted in 2021. 

Next door to the west is historic Baltimore Block, a row of 1880s landmark buildings considered Atlanta’s first apartments.  

We’ve inquired with developer Horizon Hospitality for a construction outlook this week, and we’ll update this story with any additional details that come. Building permit filings show no activity since September, when the project initially came to light. 

A Special Administrative permit filing from last year indicates the hotel project would include just 19 onsite parking spaces total, when 384 are allowed. (Parking decks are located next door and across the street to both the east and south.) Per the filing, 45 bicycle parking spaces would also be in the mix. 

Property records indicate the site sold for $8.4 million to an Alpharetta-based LLC called Atlanta Hotel Development in 2023. 

How the West Peachtree Street hotel project would stack up next to a newer, large parking garage just to the north. BCA Studios Architects

Google Maps

The West Peachtree Street site was formerly home to the Rosser Building, named for an architecture firm based there for decades, until it was demolished in 2018 to make way for a 12-story, dual-branded Marriott hotel that didn’t move forward. Ditto for another hotel proposal that had been put together a couple of years earlier.

The site's former structure was designed by prominent Atlanta architect A. Ten Eyck Brown for an automobile distributor, and it was once considered part of the city’s “Automobile Row,” a chain of distributors and dealerships. Following its automobile uses, the building served as the headquarters for Eastern Airlines. In the 1980s, Rosser architects moved into the building, occupying it until 2012. Abandoned and in desperate need of repair, the building was sold in 2015.

Since before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Motto by Hilton brand has been trying to crack into the Atlanta market as part of the Waldo’s development in Old Fourth Ward, which remains delayed more than three years after initial phases of construction launched.

Looking south across the site today toward Centennial Olympic Park. Google Maps

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• Downtown news, discussion (Urbanize Atlanta)

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524 West Peachtree St. Atlanta Hotels Motto Motto Hotel BCA Studios Downtown Development west peachtree Street 512 West Peachtree Street Urban Planning Downtown Hotels Baltimore Block Rosser Building Atlanta Architecture Atlanta Design Building Design

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The 524 West Peachtree St. site where a 1920s building was razed six years ago. Google Maps

Google Maps

Looking north across the two-brand proposal into Midtown. BCA Studios Architects

How the West Peachtree Street hotel project would stack up next to a newer, large parking garage just to the north. BCA Studios Architects

Looking south across the site today toward Centennial Olympic Park. Google Maps

Google Maps

Subtitle Dual-branded hotel concept calls for nearly 400 more rooms on West Peachtree Street

Neighborhood Downtown

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From WABE Local News:

When Colt Chambers first opened The Alley Stage, a “mom-and-pop” comedy and arts venue in downtown Marietta, he observed the diverse attendees who came through the doors. Among the local […]

From WABE Politics News:

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Tuesday Bárbara Rivera Holmes, the head of the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce, as the state’s next labor commissioner. Rivera Holmes replaces Bruce Thompson, a […]

BREAKING: Midtown announces permanent park for failed mega-project site Josh Green Tue, 03/18/2025 - 13:42 Atlanta greenspace lovers, rejoice! 

A large, vacant site in the heart of Midtown where one of the most ambitious high-rise proposals in city history, No2 Opus Place, was pitched for several years, tweaked, and ultimately fell apart will become a permanent public park, the subdistrict’s leadership announced today. 

The Midtown Improvement District’s Board of Directors revealed today that the agency is under contract on a 4-acre site at 98 14th St. that couldn’t be much more high-profile, surrounded by Atlanta arts institutions, landmark office buildings, and notable high-rise hotels and residential towers. 

The idle, partially excavated 14th Street site—situated between Peachtree and West Peachtree streets—is considered one of the final developable sites of its size left in Midtown. According to Midtown Alliance, more than 44,500 residents, students, workers, and visitors are located within a seven-minute walk of the parcel on any given day. 

For context, the 4-acre site is about 2 acres smaller than Woodruff Park, a centerpiece downtown greenspace. 

The 4-acre site's 14th Street frontage, as seen last summer. Google Maps

Courtesy of Midtown Alliance

Pitched as one of the grandest, most amenitized skyscrapers Atlanta’s ever seen, No2 Opus Place first came to light in 2016 as a 74-story, $300-million statement condo building with amenities that called for two pools, an IMAX screening room, and a 40th-floor golf simulator. Despite staging a dynamite-fueled “groundbreaking” in 2018, the project was scaled back and consistently delayed—to the chagrin of development observers and neighborhood boosters—until the site ultimately tumbled into foreclosure in fall 2023. 

Now, MID officials are aiming to close on the 14th Street site in mid-May at what agency leadership calls a pivotal time for Midtown, which has been the epicenter of Atlanta’s high-rise real estate boom for more than a dozen years. The pending land acquisition was announced today at the 2025 Midtown Alliance Annual Meeting at the Fox Theatre, which was attended by more than 1,000 civic and business leaders. 

Design and fundraising phases would follow the land acquisition. The goal is to create a “premier attraction” that’s a hub for cultural and arts experience people won’t find anywhere but Atlanta, officials said in today’s announcement. Malloy Peterson, an MID board member and Selig Enterprises senior vice president of development, said the “pioneering move” marks the first time a Community Improvement District in Georgia has acted to acquire land to create a signature public space.

Kevin Green, Midtown Alliance president and MID secretary, told Urbanize Atlanta the seller is an entity of Benmark Atlanta Lender LLC that foreclosed on the property in November 2023, but he said the purchase price won’t be disclosed until the transaction is finalized. 

“Once the property is closed, we will embark on a public design process to create something spectacular,” Green wrote via email. “Midtown Alliance will then lead a philanthropic capital campaign to fund and construct these enhancements. Timing on construction is to be determined.”

Context of the site between the Connector expressway (left) and Colony Square (right). Google Maps

An early rendering shows No2 Opus Place when it was designed to be taller—a 730-foot glass statement piece to rival the condo towers of Manhattan and Tokyo. Plans were later scaled back. Perkins+Will/No2 Opus Place

Constituting Midtown’s central high-rise and business core, the MID spans 770 acres but counts just 1.1 acres of permanent open public space today. The one-square-mile district, founded 25 years ago, has seen 55 major development projects delivered since 2018 with a value of more than $10.6 billion, per MID officials. 

“This is a seminal moment to secure open space designed for community gathering, and ensuring its availability forever,” said Mary Pat Matheson, Midtown Alliance Board Chair and Atlanta Botanical Garden president and CEO. 

Long before No2 Opus Place plans, a sweeping symphony hall by Spanish starchitect Santiago Calatrava also failed to take flight on the 14th Street site, a victim of the Great Recession. 

“Our leadership viewed this as a generational opportunity to preserve land forever and create a signature amenity for Midtown and our city,” added Kurt Hartman, MID board chair and Hines’ retired senior managing director. “Given the rapid rate Midtown has been developing, this was seen as now or never.” 

Find more site context and imagery in the gallery above.

The shabby, vacant site from ground level today.Courtesy of Midtown Alliance

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• Midtown news, discussion (Urbanize Atlanta) 

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Midtown Improvement District Selig Enterprises Midtown Alliance Atlanta Parks Atlanta Greenspace Midtown Parks 14th Street No. 2 Opus Place Opus Place Megaprojects Atlanta Parks and Recreation Parks and Red

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Context of the site between the Connector expressway (left) and Colony Square (right). Google Maps

The 4-acre site's 14th Street frontage, as seen last summer. Google Maps

Courtesy of Midtown Alliance

Courtesy of Midtown Alliance

The shabby, vacant site from ground level today.Courtesy of Midtown Alliance

Courtesy of Midtown Alliance

Subtitle Midtown Improvement District targets 4 acres in heart of district where No2 Opus Place didn’t happen

Neighborhood Midtown

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From WABE Politics News:

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed during their call on Tuesday to seek a limited ceasefire against energy and infrastructure targets in the Russia-Ukraine war, according to […]

From WABE Politics News:

President Donald Trump says files related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy will be released Tuesday without any redactions, making good on a promise he made during his campaign. Trump told […]

Arts Atlanta:

Though Paul Oakley Stovall’s Immediate Family, onstage at Out Front Theatre through March 29, has the strong, fun and nostalgic vibes of a 1990s sitcom like Living Single or Martin, there is something deeper at its core. It is a very good, funny and emotionally engaging show that deserves to be seen with a crowd....

From WABE Local News:

The Decatur City Commission on Monday approved an agreement with JHC Corporation for about $7 million to construct the renovations to the Decatur Square. The city commission also set a project […]

From WABE Politics News:

Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s priority bill to limit lawsuits and large jury verdicts has gotten increasing pushback after an initial boost in support as the legislative session enters its final weeks. Crowds of […]

From WABE Arts and Culture News:

At Ms. Gussie’s Place, you’ll find warmth, compassion, creativity, color and, most of all, music. “Ms. Gussie’s Place” is a YouTube show produced and hosted by Jacqueline Howard, an Atlanta […]

From WABE Arts and Culture News:

Born in Baghdad and raised on a Georgia farm, Atlanta comedian Gilbert Lawand likes to complicate preconceived notions about the classic American immigrant story — and he does so with […]

Arts Atlanta:

Katie Pelkey wants to celebrate three decades of Dad’s Garage by planning for the improv theater’s future. :: Katie Pelkey, the new managing director at Dad’s Garage Theatre, is one strong mother. The longtime Aurora Theatre executive — who served as its managing director since 2020 after working there in various roles since 2008 —...

From the Atlanta Daily World:

Dr. Randolph “Butch” T. Ware III Dr. Randolph “Butch” T. Ware III was the Green Party’s 2024 vice presidential candidate and is currently running for governor of California in 2026.  Ware is an associate professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research focuses on Islamic thinking, anti-slavery movements in West Africa … Continued

The post J. Pharoah Doss: Green Party says Dems are never coming back after supporting genocide? appeared first on Atlanta Daily World.

From the Atlanta Daily World:

The 2025 HBCU First LOOK Film Festival (HBCUFLF) is pleased to join forces with Spelman College and BWFN (Black Women Film Network) to present a masterful Elevate Through Mentorship conversation between trailblazing Urban One Founder & Chairperson Cathy Hughes on the power and importance of mentorship with her mentee,  Sheila Eldridge, CEO & President Miles Ahead Broadcasting and founder of the HBCU First LOOK Film … Continued

The post 2025 HBCU First LOOK Film Festival Presents Media Mogul Cathy Hughes at Spelman College appeared first on Atlanta Daily World.

From the Atlanta Daily World:

At the direction of Governor Brian P. Kemp, Department of Public Safety (DPS) Commissioner Billy Hitchens has requested U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) train all 1,100 sworn officers under his command through the 287(g) Program to better assist in identifying and apprehending illegal aliens who pose a risk to public safety in the state. … Continued

The post Gov. Kemp, DPS to Train 1,000 Georgia State Troopers for Immigrant Removal appeared first on Atlanta Daily World.

From the Atlanta Daily World:

Thousands expected to attend city’s ‘biggest science party’ March 22 The Atlanta Science Festival (ASF) presented by Delta Air Lines, the city’s ultimate celebration of all things science and one of the largest of its kind in the country, runs now through March 22 with more than 100 events taking place throughout metro Atlanta. ASF … Continued

The post Atlanta Science Festival delivers interactive grand finale, the Exploration Expo at Piedmont Park appeared first on Atlanta Daily World.

From the Atlanta Daily World:

On Monday, Solicitor Lisamarie Bristol formally announced her campaign to seek another term as Gwinnett County Solicitor-General.   “One of the many reasons I ran for Solicitor-General was to build a safer, more compassionate Gwinnett.  In my first term as Solicitor-General, my team and I laid the groundwork to deliver real and meaningful criminal justice … Continued

The post Lisamarie Bristol Announces Reelection Campaign for Gwinnett County Solicitor-General appeared first on Atlanta Daily World.

From WABE Local News:

Members of the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership and Atlanta Regional Commission met to present the Atlanta Regional Housing Forum to discuss affordable housing in the community. With potential federal cuts […]

From the Saporta Report:

The 2026 FIFA World Cup was the major topic of discussion during the March 14 meeting of the Atlanta Committee for Progress (ACP), according to people who attended the meeting. Michael Russell, CEO of the H.J. Russell & Co. and the 2025 ACP chair, sat down after the private meeting, which was held at King […]

The post ACP meeting: World Cup will be an opportunity to show off Atlanta appeared first on SaportaReport.

From the Saporta Report:

When Andre Dickens was elected mayor in November 2021, I was filled with optimism and hope for the future of Atlanta. Here was a leader who ran on running an ethical government, building affordable housing and implementing rail transit on the Beltline. After eight years of the contentious administration of Mayor Kasim Reed and the […]

The post Atlanta must go forwards — not backwards — when it comes to Beltline rail appeared first on SaportaReport.

Next phase of West Highlands redevelopment breaks ground Josh Green Mon, 03/17/2025 - 16:22 A mixed-income housing venture with dozens of units has officially entered the pipeline northwest of Midtown. 

Atlanta Housing and its development partners, Perry Homes Redevelopment and Brock Built Homes, held a groundbreaking ceremony Friday to kick off construction of the next phase of redevelopment at the expansive West Highlands project. 

The 2000 Perry Boulevard NW site is situated between Midtown’s northern reaches and Interstate 285, adjacent to Norfolk Southern’s massive Inman Yard railroad hub. 

The property formerly housed the Perry Homes housing projects, built in the 1950s and fully demolished in 1999 as efforts to clear public housing in the city ramped up. 

The next phase of West Highlands—already one of the largest master-planned communities in the City of Atlanta—calls for 65 for-sale townhomes and detached single-family houses. 

Overview of the latest West Highlands section to break ground, with communal greenspaces included. Courtesy of Atlanta Housing

Context of the 2000 Perry Boulevard site, situated northwest of Midtown. Google Maps

According to Atlanta Housing officials, 25 units (or 38 percent of the next phase) will be priced at rates deemed affordable, while the rest will be market-rate. 

That means 25 townhome units will ask $252,000 when finished. Elsewhere, the 40 units of market-rate housing will be priced between $385,000 and $490,000. 

The West Highlands homes will range from 1,400 to 2,500 square feet, according to officials.

The next phase is considered a public-private partnership led by both Atlanta Housing and Brock Built, which has been building a range of communities in the area for years. 

Atlanta Housing is providing $562,500 as a development cost subsidy, in addition to land-value subsidies for affordable units, per agency officials. 

Terri Lee, Atlanta Housing president and CEO, called the project “another step forward in [the agency’s] mission to create inclusive communities where families of all income levels can thrive” in an announcement. 

Totality of the West Highlands project, with the under-construction new section shown at far left. Courtesy of Atlanta Housing

Today, the West Highlands redevelopment includes 700 mixed-income rentals and 513 for-sale homes, 144 of those capped for families earning at or below 80 percent of the area median income. Another 114 homes are currently in the pipeline. 

Other components of the project—described by Atlanta Housing as “a model for mixed-income, community-driven revitalization”—include a community center, a park, and playground.

Breakdown of affordable housing units at West Highlands (red) and market-rate housing.Courtesy of Atlanta Housing

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• Photos: How 'Upper Westside' build with nearly 600 homes turned out(Urbanize Atlanta) 

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2000 Perry Boulevard NW West Highlands Atlanta Housing Perry Boulevard Perry Homes Atlanta Housing Projects Atlanta Townhomes Atlanta Affordable Housing Brock Built Homes Perry Homes Redevelopment public-private partnerships Affordability Affordable Housing affordable housing Carver Hills Upper Westside

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Context of the 2000 Perry Boulevard site, situated northwest of Midtown. Google Maps

Breakdown of affordable housing units at West Highlands (red) and market-rate housing.Courtesy of Atlanta Housing

Overview of the latest West Highlands section to break ground, with communal greenspaces included. Courtesy of Atlanta Housing

Totality of the West Highlands project, with the under-construction new section shown at far left. Courtesy of Atlanta Housing

Subtitle Where townhome prices will start in the $250Ks, per officials

Neighborhood Westside

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From the Saporta Report:

You might be familiar with the term “Y’allywood.” It is a nickname that many have recently applied to Atlanta. For those not into, as The Dude would say, the whole brevity thing, perhaps you’re familiar with “Hollywood of the South.” Either way, both of those names will just have to be added to the lengthy […]

The post The Nickname appeared first on SaportaReport.

From the Saporta Report:

Social Security is often called “the third rail of American politics,” a term that harkens back to the old streetcar days when most city folks understood that touching the third rail of a trolley line could kill you.

The post With swagger, DOGE approaches the third rail appeared first on SaportaReport.