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In Midtown, a major mystery announcement is planned. What could it be?

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Upbeat officials say it’s time to “Toss the confetti!” but divulge little else. Hmmm ...

Short, upbeat, and provocative, it’s an email subject line that could make Atlanta development wonks turn cartwheels: "Midtown, we have great news..."

The Midtown Alliance has beamed out an email with that title to announce something next week that sounds major.

Alliance leaders are hosting a special "pop-up celebration" at 4 p.m. Tuesday (with gratis King of Pops, no less) to unveil details about "a big announcement" that’s so positive they’re urging people to "Toss the confetti!" in advance.

What could it be, y'all?

Coincidentally or not, the event will take place at 10th Street Park — a pocket greenspace near the intersection of Peachtree and 10th streets — where Dewberry Capital leasing signs have stood for ages. John Dewberry, a former Georgia Tech quarterback turned maverick developer, is said to own enough land around Midtown for about two dozens towers — and this site of mostly surface parking happens to have the highest profile.

Maybe the announcement’s location means nothing. Property records show no recent sales activity at the site. The rumor mill has coughed up nothing lately.

As a painful reminder for parking-lot haters, here’s an aerial of immediate land usage around 10th Street Park right now:

Dewberry's supposedly near-future plans include a six-story expansion to the Campanile building at Peachtree and 14th streets. Farther north on Peachtree Street, the company has proposed a tower with a hotel on the current site of an Exxon gas station.

But Dewberry's pièce de résistance has always been the four-acre parcel he owns at 10th and Peachtree, where he’s long envisioned a "masterpiece" legacy project called Midtown Square. The site, for now, includes Henry's Midtown Tavern, two failed nightclubs, a long-dead Jocks & Jills Sports Grill (aka, the Dewberry Market), and an ocean of surface parking.

But maybe that’s irrelevant. Tuesday shall tell.


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