The Atlanta Braves' pending exodus to Cobb County will put the team closer to their most coveted demographic (prosperous suburbanites), and in the interim, the move is reportedly making that demographic a lot of money. Since the Braves announced their departure from downtown Atlanta in November 2013, residential sales prices near the future SunTrust Park have tripled, while the volume of commercial property sales has quadrupled, Cumberland CID Executive Director Malaika Rivers told the Cobb Business Journal. That activity has translated to apartment vacancy rates well below the Cumberland/Galleria area's historical average of 7.4 percent, even as thousands of new units are being built. Rivers pointed to other data that suggest Cobb isn't as discriminatory toward millennials as some have made it seem: By 2018, the Cumberland CID area is expected to pack on 4,500 more multi-family units, adding about 10,000 residents since the Braves made their fateful announcement. That's the equivalent of roughly 12 SkyHouse Buckhead towers.
Rivers told the newspaper that southeastern Cobb is particularly well-suited to benefit from the rental madness sweeping the nation: "Millennials are requiring different living communities," Rivers said. "Our investment is really following what's trending around the country where investors are seeing there is money to be made in communities that have a lot of things to offer; not just a neighborhood where you put a house, but a neighborhood where you can do a lot of different things."
She added that Cumberland has been changing for more than three decades — morphing from "a suburban corporate campus, very horizontal and spread out, to more of a complete community" — and that the Braves' 2013 announcement and subsequent investment has shone "a spotlight on this community and accelerated the growth we always knew we could capture."
The good news for apartment-loving millennials who covet an East Cobb address: The average rent is about $900, which doesn't get your foot in the door of many of intown's trendiest new mixed-use offerings.
· Rooms to Grow: Apartment market in Cobb staying strong [CBJ]
· Is Cobb County Rife with Millennial Discrimination? [Curbed]
· New $12M Cobb Subdivision Puts Fans Close to The Braves [Curbed]
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