The nonprofit launched earlier this month called the Heart of South Downtown is advocating for the area where it gets its namesake and what the future of it looks like.
South Downtown is one of the most unique places in the city, serviced by several MARTA train stations, including the only one that goes in multiple directions — Five Points — as well as proximity to Mercedes Benz Stadium, State Farm Arena and the impending mega-project Centennial Yards set to transform the Gulch into a thriving district.
Brianna Jackson, CEO of Heart of South Downtown, said that while the organization is new, the work has already been going on behind the scenes since around August of 2024.
“In May of 2024 is when we started to realize that it’s going to take a lot more than just turning the lights on in the buildings and redoing the infrastructure and revitalization of the buildings to actually make this a neighborhood where everyone can thrive,” Jackson said. “We learned pretty quickly that the best path forward for us was to create a nonprofit.”
That month, she and her former colleague Jon Birdsong, CEO of real estate firm SoDo, which focuses on the development of South Downtown, went on listening tours, meeting with residents, business owners, nonprofits and city officials within Downtown Atlanta and outside of it, to see who would be the best partners for such a venture.
How we got here
South Downtown has seen increased eyes on it for the past several years; in 2023, German real estate company Newport, who owned dozens of buildings in South Downtown for close to a decade with plans for a large-scale revitalization of the neighborhood, sold their assets and with it, left the lofty plans for an energized community in the air.
Several months later, Atlanta Ventures, led by the same Jon Birdsong of SoDo LLC along with longtime Atlanta Ventures business partner David Cummings, emerged as the new carriers of those plans after buying some of those foreclosed and abandoned properties.
Atlanta Ventures made a big splash on the Atlanta scene when they launched Atlanta Tech Village in Buckhead in 2012, a startup hub that has grown in prominence.
Now, the duo is set to take on a new challenge — revitalizing the area of downtown with a unique promise for walkability and density.
Jackson had worked for David Cummings for over a decade, even before Atlanta Tech Village. Her connections with Cummings and Birdsong make her uniquely positioned to advocate the vision of the neighborhood alongside colleagues for whom she has a long history.
After about 10 years at Atlanta Tech Village, Jackson found her next step to be leasing HR at Calendy, a now widely known Atlanta startup.
How Things Look Today
After Cummings and Birdsong purchased the properties in January of 2024, Jackson reached out to her longtime former colleagues, curious about the venture outside of the tech world in which they had made their name in the tumultuous real estate market.
“Jon was like, ‘Come and let me give you a tour,’ so Jon and I came down here for lunch,” Jackson recounted. I walked the area with him… I was down here for almost two hours, and I fell in love with the area because it reminded me of what we were doing in 2012 on the entrepreneurial side — and now we have the opportunity to scale this beyond businesses and entrepreneurship, but to create a neighborhood that is built on workforce development, community, and so much more. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to impact an area that has been disinvested for so long.”
Though she was happy with her current role, Jackson said she had never “felt more alive” than walking around South Downtown because of all the opportunities there.
“There’s so much to do, so much work, so many challenges… we have the opportunity to create entrepreneurs, launch businesses,” Jackson said.
With the opportunity, however, comes challenges. The neighborhood has high rates of homeless people, in part due to the lack of investment in the area for decades.
“For me, it’s hard to come down here every day and see people that look like me struggling,” Jackson said. “Atlanta is one of the fastest growing cities when it comes to technology innovation, but its a tale of two cities when you look outside, and we’ve got several thousand people on our streets who don’t have a home, who are struggling to find jobs… in order for us to make a concerted effort to commit to an investment to turn these buildings around, we also have to invest in the people — and that’s why we started Heart of South Downtown.”
Realizing the vision
Another challenge is instilling faith in the Atlanta community at large that it will not be another gentrification project that pushes problems — and people — to the wayside in favor of shiny new buildings and businesses. With the purchase of the area in early 2024 by Cummings and Birdsong, people were skeptical at best.
“I reached out [to Jon in 2024] because I had seen articles and so many people commenting that two guys have purchased the area, and [gentrification] was exactly what was about to happen,” Jackson said, acknowledging that many redevelopments do tend to forget about legacy residents and underlying problems of inequities. “I know these guys — these are guys I’ve worked with for 10, 12 years — and I wanted to ensure myself that that wasn’t happening… I know that’s not the case.”
Jackson said she told Jon the optics of purchasing a historically disinvested neighborhood in the historically Black area spurred a lot of reactions, but having worked with the duo before, she trusted their vision and moral compass. She then offered to help to ensure that the negative effects of gentrification don’t come to fruition.
The Heart of South Downtown has five pillars that guide its advocacy:
- Economic mobility and workforce empowerment
- Public safety and community well-being
- Social impact and sustainable growth
- Culture and public space revitalization
- Civic engagements and advocacy
Jackson hopes to tap into her business connections throughout the city to make pledges towards expanding opportunities into the area, both in training individuals and ensuring they have job prospects to use those skills. She hopes the Heart of South Downtown will be able to provide microgrants to entrepreneurs who want to invest in South Downtown.
She also wants to ensure that Atlanta’s beloved art and culture scene is respected and celebrated in the neighborhood so that creatives know it is a place they are welcome to shape and live.
With the support of the private sector — especially the tech sector — Jackson is certain the vision can be realized.
“We’re the new kids on the block. Atlanta has 200-plus well-intentioned nonprofits that have been doing this work for a long time… I think we have great support from the city, as everyone wants to see Downtown reimagined… we’re bringing new ideas, we’re bringing innovation, and we want to be mindful of organizations that have been around a long time doing great work,” Jackson said. “How can we be a bridge and connector, and how can we fill the gap?”
Investments are already playing out
South Downtown ATL of the SoDo LLC portfolio owned by Cummings and Birdsong posted a video this week showing progress on the neighborhood.
Broad Street right now: pic.twitter.com/1oiLg0Ksb7
— South Downtown ATL (@sodowntownatl) March 19, 2025
Additionally, Trinity Central Flats, a planned ten-story, 218-unit mixed-income housing development, is set to be completed by 2026, when the World Cup will be in the city. That development will reportedly not have a dedicated parking space for its tenants, signifying a focus on creating a walkable, thriving community that can rely on transit. It will feature 186 units set at 60 percent AMI.
Moreover, Atlanta Tech Village opened a location in South Downtown in January of this year, doubling down on Atlanta Venture’s commitment to the area.
While it is too early to conclude how the neighborhood will pan out with a mix of new investors and advocacy groups like the Heart of South Downtown, a mix of skepticism and optimism are in the minds of many who hope to see the area thriving and not left to decay.
LOVE THIS! Thank you for your support of downtownATL and of Brianna Jackson / Jon Birdsong / David Cumming’s efforts specifically. It is an EXCITING time for the center of our city. And those three heartbeats are at the epicenter of so much of the good that is happening.