A public-private partnership of downtown Atlanta leaders gave a “brief snapshot” of future developments as the city gears up to host eight FIFA World Cup matches in 2026.
Central Atlanta Progress President A.J. Robinson said there are approximately $3.5 billion dollars in new development planned for the next five years. The nonprofit head previewed a “wide array of projects big and small, aimed at realizing a shared goal of advancing a more vibrant downtown Atlanta.”
The largest announcement came by way of The Stitch, a major development to put a park over the Downtown Connector and knit together several divided communities. It’s set to add 17 acres of new community park space at over $700 million. So far, Central Atlanta Progress has secured $200 million in federal funds to complete the first phase of the project.
On April 26, the Atlanta City Council passed almost all of the legislation needed to create Stitch Inc. and move forward with the park project. The new legislation creates a Stitch Special Services District, a tax levy on properties in the district to fund construction, operation and maintenance and authorizes Atlanta entities to implement the project plans.
“We have to begin work sometime in 2026, so probably around the end of the year after the World Cup,” Robinson said.
The Stitch won’t kick off construction until after the World Cup hits the city, but downtown leaders previewed a host of projects set for completion in time to host an estimated 330,000 unique visitors. Robinson stressed the projects would also help Atlanta in the long term.
“Just thinking about people moving through the city, how can we make that experience memorable and encourage people to come back when there isn’t a game?” Arts and Activation Director Alex Francombe said. “Thinking beyond the World Cup, how can we just improve the way that downtown feels?”
Stacy Grolimund, the senior project manager for transportation and capital projects pointed to several works in progress to improve downtown streets. The city recently broke ground on a Forsyth Street improvement project to create protected, directional bike lanes.
Ahead of the World Cup, the public-private city and nonprofit partnership will add updates to Woodruff Park, resurface roads downtown, and create new wayfinding signage throughout the city to guide visitors to major landmarks.
Grolimund also previewed an overhaul of Jackson Street Bridge, a popular photo-taking destination known for its view of the Atlanta skyline. The project will turn the heavily trafficked road into a protected pedestrian and bike area.
“More people are going to take that picture from that little sidewalk we helped build up there than any other place during the World Cup,” Robinson said. “It’s the little things that we do that I think make our community better.”
Norelie Garcia, CEO of a new initiative aimed at preparing the city for major events called Showcase Atlanta, said the work and improvements are all about learning what the “community needs.”
For 40 days next year, millions will have eyes on Atlanta. Hundreds of thousands of people will take to the street. Garcia said they’ll be in games for about 90 minutes at a time — the rest of the time, they need to eat and play.
But she said it’s not about the World Cup. It’s about Atlanta’s preparedness for every event, from DragonCon to the Beyonce concert.
“We are in this continuous cycle of hosting the world, the region, the nation, our neighbors, ourselves,” Garcia said. “The idea is we can generate a blueprint that’s community driven, so that corporations, NGOs and politicians don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”
Please so something about the roads in Atlanta downtown, and midtown for God’s sake.
just what atlanta needs is a hoard of immigrants flooding downtown next year, untold thousands without tickets which proves that if you hype something hard enough people will pretend boredom is culture.
What an uninformed thing to say.
The article is about World Cup prep, but you take time to drop hate. Get lost.
How incredibly negative, at what point did this article mention immigrants? Atlanta is on the precipice of developing synergies and efficiencies that are not only unique to this nation but unique to this hemisphere.
As with any problem confronting dignified southerner, we will handle it with grace and use every opportunity as a learning one. Using the acquired wisdom to refine and sharpen our response to future response to the same types of problems. Through this routinization we will be able to create even greater efficiencies.
All that from handling an issue with aplomb and not fretting of specious predictions of future misery.