Fresh renderings: Newport’s vision for South Downtown revamp

Major development groups are working together to reimagine the face of South Downtown.

Wait, what?

Atlanta’s development community might not be as cutthroat as other cities’, but it’s not something you hear every day.

According to Newport Executive Vice President Katharine Kelley, developers working to revitalize South Downtown have been meeting to find ways to make neighboring projects complement one another. And Newport, for one, is putting forth plans that indicate more specifically what could be in store for Atlanta’s beleaguered core.

Los Angeles-based developer CIM Group, as one other example, is redeveloping downtown’s desolate pit of parking lots and railroad tracks called the Gulch.

Kelley said Newport was glad to see the Atlanta City Council green-light the development agreement because, “We support our neighbors.”

“We look at [the council’s approval] as a good sign for all of downtown, so we’re happy to see [CIM Group] succeed,” she said. “We feel that all of this area is interconnected.”

CIM Group is also a partner in renovating the historic Norfolk Southern Buildings, turning old offices into a multifamily residential and office complex, so Newport has been in talks with what would otherwise be its competitor, in hopes of developing apartments in a way that doesn’t clash with its neighbor.

“We have adjacent properties, and we want to make sure we’re not cannibalizing one another,” she said.

The collaborative spirit doesn’t end there, according to Kelley.

She said officials from Newport, which is mapping out a $500 million overhaul of eight South Downtown blocks, have been in talks with developers of other nearby projects, such as the Underground Atlanta redevelopment, which is headed by South Carolina-based developer WRS.

“It’s nice to be part of a broader redevelopment of downtown, where the developers with adjacencies are collaborating in their planning and conversations for the future of their respective projects,” she said.

Although Kelley said Newport is not yet ready to release information regarding the phasing of its South Downtown endeavor—that and news about the first tenants could come to light next month or early next year, she said—fresh renderings obtained by Curbed Atlanta offer more specific glimpses at how the company aims to transform eight blocks of the neighborhood.

Take a peek below and click here to see a full presentation shared with JLL, Newport’s leasing team.