Last month, the NMI took 15 students to South Downtown Atlanta for a site visit with our friends at Atlanta Tech Village (ATV) to learn about their ongoing development project reimagining 57 buildings across 16 acres in the historic core of downtown Atlanta.
The vision is to create a downtown extension of ATV’s Buckhead hub, blending new apartment towers with restored storefronts. By the end of 2025 they aim to bring in 100 startups and more than 400 workers across fields like cloud software and robotics.
Our visit began at ATV’s South Downtown office inside the restored Sylvan Hotel, originally built in 1908. Experiencing modern technologies in such a storied space set the tone for the visit. From there, we explored blocks already under restoration and stepped inside some of the first businesses moving into the neighborhood.
The day had plenty of highlights, like meeting Oppy, a robotic security dog from Undaunted, a startup born from ATV and Atlanta Ventures. Over sandwiches from a local deli, we learned more about the vision for transforming today’s nearly 6% occupancy into a pedestrian-friendly hub buzzing with startups, shops, and creative energy.
Walking the streets made it easy to picture the area’s future. The project was a truly inspiring example of adaptive reuse, and we can’t wait to return in a few years to see how far it’s come!