Atlanta Housing breaks ground on phase one of Civic Center redevelopment: affordable senior housing

The Atlanta Civic Center has sat vacant since it shuttered its doors in 2014, no longer filled with the vibrant touring productions or community celebrations of decades past. The former theater became a stage for something new when, on Dec. 9, city leaders and community members gathered at the historic Atlanta Civic Center site to break ground on a mixed-use redevelopment project that has been in the works for decades.

Atlanta Housing purchased the 19-acre Atlanta Civic Center property in November 2017 with the goal of redeveloping the land into a center that serves the community and honors the legacy of the site’s troubled history. 

Phase one of the project will begin with the construction of 148 units of affordable housing for seniors. Over 1,500 housing units will be complete by late 2027. Thirty-eight percent of this new housing will qualify as affordable, with 148 affordable units for seniors, 118 units for households earning below 60 percent of the area median income (AMI) and 30 units reserved for households earning below 50 percent of the AMI. 

Subsequent development on the land will include a hotel, grocery store, commercial and office space, a public school and outdoor gathering space, according to Atlanta Housing. The performing arts center will be “preserved and repurposed.”

“We stand today at the foot of the city center on land that has been rebuilt, reshaped, celebrated, abandoned and now has the opportunity to be reborn,” said Terri Lee, president and CEO of Atlanta Housing. “This land tells a story. It tells a story about who we’ve been as a city and who we’re determined to become.”

The Great Atlanta Fire of 1917 began in the Old Fourth Ward, destroying more than 300 acres of the city and displacing thousands of people. The historic working-class Black neighborhood, called Buttermilk Bottom, emerged in the aftermath of the fire. But in the 1960s, urban renewal forced Black residents out of Buttermilk Bottom in the name of redevelopment. Homes were demolished, families were displaced and the construction of a new civic center was completed on the land in 1967. 

“For nearly five decades, this was one of the city’s cultural assets and anchors,” Lee said. The performing arts center hosted high-profile events, mayoral inaugurations, performances by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, musicals, graduations and more until it eventually closed in 2014.

For decades, the question of what to do with the Civic Center site, which redevelopment proposals deemed “underutilized,” has surfaced again and again. In 1986, Ackerman & Co. had plans for a mixed-use development — and a lease on the property — but that redevelopment never materialized. When the performing arts center shut down in 2014, developers began bidding on the site. The city eventually sold the property to Atlanta Housing in 2017.

“We’re bringing back retail and commercial space. The cultural spaces that families were able to dwell in in the past. That’s coming back, too,” Lee said.

“Today’s not just a groundbreaking — it’s a bridge. It’s a bridge between the stories of the past and the opportunities of the future, it’s a bridge between what this land has endured and what it will now become,” Lee said. “It’s really a bridge between a memory and what’s possible… We’re restoring a piece of Atlanta’s story.”

Mayor Andre Dickens reiterated the importance of restoring community in the historic site. 

“This is sacred ground, sacred work, and we made a promise to the people of Atlanta to make this a city where everyone can live, grow and retire with dignity, a city of opportunity for all,” Mayor Andre Dickens said. “It stands as evidence that Atlanta keeps its promises… that we learn from our history and that we are always moving forward.”