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Accessible & equitable urbanism absolutely includes public toilets! Big kudos to local author Hannah Palmer for writing about this for the How I'd Fix Atlanta series! Atlanta needs public toilets. They're a part of the urban fabric in many great cities but we've failed to invest in them on the scale we should. QUOTE: "Because investing in public toilets is a challenge for every city, they can be an interesting marker of our cultural values. Forget comparing Atlanta to global capitals like Tokyo, with its playful and sculptural public toilets (so great, in fact, that they were the backdrop of an Oscar-nominated art film), or Paris, which has more than 400 standalone “sanisettes.” According to the indispensable Public Toilet Index, Atlanta falls short when compared to southern cities like Raleigh or Miami or Charlotte. It calculates a measly four toilets per 100,000 people here." https://lnkd.in/e7dbkPFB

This article is a good reminder that making smart infrastructure investments in Atlanta neighborhoods can pay off: the retention ponds in O4W & Vine City worked as planned during the Helene rains, preventing flooding. https://lnkd.in/gJzdrXdt

The City of Atlanta has 'acquired' the 12-acre West End Mall property for a mixed-used redevelopment with a focus on affordability. According to a press release: "This acquisition is the first step in the approximate $450 million redevelopment of the historic property into a mixed-income, mixed-use affordable housing development featuring an inclusive commercial space for a diverse business community—most importantly including legacy small businesses." It seems safe to assume that this be be a more successful effort than the string of failed, private proposals to develop the property in the last few years. The City says that construction will begin in 2025 on: > 125,000 square feet of retail, including a grocery store, fitness center, food & beverage, and local boutiques > 900 mixed-income rental units, with 70% workforce housing, 20% affordable at 50% AMI, and 10% at 80% AMI > At least 10,00 square foot of affordable commercial space allocated for qualified small, local businesses > Student-targeted housing > A hotel > 12,000 square feet of medical office space Given that the mall is next to a MARTA rail station, this could be a big boost for affordable, transit-adjacent development in the city, which is absolutely the kind of urbanism improvement that Atlanta needs. More info here: https://lnkd.in/e3HY9MZN

Do you want to be part of the team helping Atlanta achieve Mayor Andre Dickens' ambitious goal of adding 20,000 affordable housing units in Atlanta by 2030? Atlanta's Housing Innovation Lab is searching for a Senior Urban Designer to join our team of housing, planning, and real estate professionals. This is your opportunity to lead design initiatives that directly impact housing equity and community development. The Housing Innovation Lab is at the forefront of affordable housing policy, and this role is a blend of urban design, planning, and housing policy development. You’ll help implement strategies that shape the future of public land development while working closely with developers, community stakeholders, and policymakers. If you’re passionate about affordable housing and urban design and ready for a new challenge, we’d love to hear from you.

The map of the new daily-service Amtrak route from Miami to Chicago is nice. But wouldn't it be nicer if the route was more direct? And passed through Downtown Atlanta, connecting to a great new intercity rail station there? Just sharing some bright and hopeful dreams on a gray, rainy day. This summer, Urbanize Atlanta reported that Amtrak was seeking $30 million in funding to start building a new Atlanta rail hub on a Downtown site -- one the transit agency said was "at imminent risk of development." https://lnkd.in/gP53ycPV

A real estate team aims to pursue $250 million in low-interest federal loans (via the Transportation Infrastructure Finance & Innovation Act program) to convert Downtown's giant 2 Peachtree office tower into over 600 apartments, plus office and retail. The whole project is estimated at $400 million. Atlanta Business Chronicle has the story (Paywalled) https://lnkd.in/eQGEV-Hs Invest Atlanta, the city's finance arm, bought the property last year for $41.5 million, using an Eastside Tax Allocation District Special Fund Grant. According to previous reports, a little under half the housing units will be priced as affordable for households earning up to 80% or less of the area median income (AMI). 140 of those units will be priced for 60% or less AMI and 65 will be for seniors at 50% AMI.

It's a ticketed event, but if you're serious about becoming a developer of small-scaled builds in Atlanta this workshop could be a big help. Small Scale Development Workshop Thursday, Oct 3, 2024 9AM-5PM Monday Night Brewing https://lnkd.in/eKxzfuE6

One of Downtown Atlanta's most drab corners could get a big boost thanks to the owners of the Georgia Pacific tower, according to a big announcement made today. Urbanize Atlanta has the story: https://lnkd.in/eq5M9DSv The southeast entrance to the Peachtree Center MARTA Station has been a disused eyesore for many years. A new vision adds retail development and a public plaza in a spot that has often had cars parked in it. This is good news for the vibrancy of this section of Downtown -- getting rid of eyesores and dead spaces is at least as important as adding new developments when it comes to making pedestrians feel welcome. The owners also want to convert the upper floors of the office tower into 400 apartments. This is an impressive goal. Residential development is one of Downtown's biggest needs and if they can pull this off, it could be a major tipping point for the overall effort to make better use of Downtown's empty office spaces. But it's worth noting that conversions of office buildings from this era can be very expensive and challenging (for instance, the project to convert Downtown's 41 Marietta office tower to apartments went into foreclosure this year). Regardless of how that component turns out though, the overall vision is exciting and the ground-level changes will be a very welcome change for the pedestrian experience here, and it will be a great consolation considering the failure of MARTA's bid to lure development to a similarly disused Peachtree Center Station entrance across the street a few years ago.

The owner of Underground Atlanta, Lalani Ventures, wants to build a multifamily tower with affordable units on the property -- this is according to Bisnow Atlanta. Lalani & project partner Exact Capital submitted a request for $40 million in incentives to Invest Atlanta. If that gets approved, Lalani says they'll "seek construction financing" to build the tower which would include student housing, affordable units, and market rate units. 163 units in the tower would be restricted to renters earning up to 60% of the area median income, with rents from $971 for a studio to $1,225 for a two-bedroom unit. If all the needed financing is found, this would be the first construction on the property since Shaneel Lalani purchased Underground four years ago, following a failed attempt by previous owner (WRS Inc.) to make anything happen. A new tower next to Five Points MARTA Station, with no added parking (judging from the renderings), and with an affordability component -- it's an encouraging proposal. This part of Downtown has proven to be a tough sell for construction lending, but best wishes to Lalani for success. https://lnkd.in/eHuJ7bNF

This is a good article about Atlanta's I-MIX zoning designation, created in 2020 to allow for mixed-use development in formerly industrial spaces while leaving space for some industrial uses. Some of the biggest recent developments in the city have happened through this zoning. Apparently the success of it is prompting other cities to explore similar zoning designations. And while it's good to see new life on these properties, there's still some serious work to be done to improve the projects. Apart from the obvious need to fund affordability in them, there's also the transportation component that needs to be addressed. The article focuses on The Works on Chatthoochee Avenue. It's a street that lacks frequent transit, has no protected bike lanes, and has spotty sidewalks. We can do better than drive-to urbanism. Instead of just applauding individual developments in a vacuum, let's work at a more holistic level and ensure that these projects are part of equitable, sustainable urban neighborhoods. https://lnkd.in/eUPrHFCf