Centennial Yards: Major project to transform downtown Atlanta moving forward to next phase

ATLANTA — Channel 2 Action News has learned a major project that could remake downtown Atlanta is on the move to its next phase.

Channel 2′s Justin Farmer met with the president of Centennial Yards, the force behind transforming a part of Atlanta that has been called the Gulch for decades.

Brian McGowan walked Farmer through Phase One of Centennial Yards. The vision is people socializing, eating, drinking and just enjoying the outdoors before and after games and concerts.

[PHOTOS: Centennial Yards project to transform downtown Atlanta]

“This whole project started about eight years ago. Tony Ressler bought the Atlanta Hawks. And he looked across the street at the big hole in the ground, which we affectionately know as the Gulch, and said, I want L.A. Live there. So, L.A. Live is one of the first sports adjacent entertainment districts in America,” McGowan said.

McGowan has the immense job of seeing through Ressler’s dream and several others.

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“Bars and restaurants and you know, the whole thing about retail now is interactive retail,” McGowan said.

“So, here’s the question: Is it really happening? Because we’ve seen, unfortunately, this movie before for 42 years there have been attempts,” Farmer asked McGowan.

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“Yeah. I won’t get into the details of what exactly it is, but there’s a number of local investors along with some kind of more national institutional investors. The big point is that it’s equity finance. We’re not borrowing money, so we’re not subject to interest rates and things like that,” McGowan said.

Ressler, his developer brother and others who include Arthur Blank and Andrew Young, are trying to build a “come early, stay late” vibe on game days. McGowan said music will be spilling out into the common areas.

“I think right now, first of all, Centennial Yards is enormous. It’s 50 acres. It’s a $5 billion project. It’s 3,000 apartments, multiple hotels, office space, etc.” McGowan said.

The first phase at $500 million is under construction now. It’s set to feature an entertainment venue and has the support of some of Atlanta’s most influential artists. What we do know about Centennial Yards is that this time it all seems different.

“So we had Andy Young here, who is one of our investors, but he looked out the window at the site, which is right behind us, and he put his hand on the heart and he said, ‘This has been the hole in my heart since I ran for mayor,’” McGowan said.

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RELATED NEWS:

Developer says Centennial Yards will ‘breathe new life’ into downtown Atlanta Channel 2′s Dave Huddleston got exclusive access Monday to images of how the area will look once it’s completed.

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