Atlanta's original and still vibrant industrial corridor,
on the west side, is just about the only place in the city left in which
to attempt big mixed-use projects. Assembling large tracts elsewhere is
too expensive a gamble for most developers.
Part of the area's attraction may be its fabric of Atlanta
history, which no one has gotten around to unraveling and repackaging. The
crossroads where Atlanta was surrendered to the Yankees during the Civil
War -- the corner of Northside Drive and Marietta Street -- is now a
construction site for apartments. The windowless cooler of an old
meatpacking plant is a condominium in a bustling building. Roads and train
yards hum with never-ending freight traffic.
There's a muscular attitude, with diesel to back it up.
Old-timer Melvin Carmichael can't believe the evolution of
the part of town he's called home for all his 70 years. His mind's eye
recalls the factories and boardinghouses that sprang up along Atlanta's
first artery: the railroad.
"The old U-Haul place that's condos now? That used to be
trailers full of pigs to be slaughtered," Carmichael recalls. "The
building across the street from here [Alta West apartments], that was a
meat house with a dairy. Just behind it is where they used to kill cows,
used to shoot them in the back."
Carmichael sweeps his hand over the western horizon across
Howell Mill Road from Star Iron and Metal Co., where he has worked for 26
years. Star is among the last five of 24 recyclers that have dotted the
area in the past three decades.
"They want to call this West Midtown, or Midtown West, and
we always called it just the west side," Carmichael says. "But once they
get the new bridge open over the Downtown Connector, they just might be
able to bring Midtown all the way from Peachtree Street over here."
The 17th Street bridge is best known as the portal from
Midtown to Atlantic Station, now rising above the southwestern shoulder of
the Brookwood Interchange. The 138-acre mixed-use project could not have
gotten off the ground without a connection to the heart of Atlanta. The
two communities were severed when the Downtown Connector was built in the
1960s.
An added benefit of the bridge was to be the potential
reopening of the west side of Atlanta's urban core. But until lately,
there has been little evidence that would happen anytime soon.
Winter Co. now is poised to start the boldest mixed-use
project yet in the industrial district. The company has long been a
pioneer in redeveloping decayed parts of town that since have rebounded.
But this is a 24-acre residential and retail project in a part of town
that hasn't seen new homes built in decades.
Next summer, Winter plans to open 183 townhouses and
10,000 square feet of retail space on the site of a former lumberyard
facing Marietta Boulevard. Prices are a tad lower than condos in Midtown,
starting in the upper $100,000s and rising quickly above $250,000.
The nearby freight yards of Norfolk Southern and CSX
railroads spur heavy truck traffic, and nearby retailers cater to rougher
elements of the warehouse crowd and perhaps residents of a few lonely
apartment complexes aimed at local workers.
The closest current retail neighbor of the planned M West
townhouse development is a triple-X-rated emporium. The closest grocery
store is a convenience store. But Winter suspects that the environment
bolsters the attraction of units priced for young professionals starting
their careers.
"Obviously there's some scruffy commercial," says Carl
Meinhardt, Winter's vice president of design, who has worked in London,
New York and Florence, Italy. "But that's the new Atlanta. People are much
more casual about their neighborhood and are willing to accept certain
things."
'It's all upside'
That situation may improve if two unrelated improvement
efforts gain traction.
A group of residents and businesses has been meeting for
months to discuss shared concerns on the extreme northern boundary of the
industrial corridor. The group hopes to ease traffic congestion along
Howell Mill Road, just south of I-75, and feeder streets that link to the
warehouse district. The various streets carry 3,000 to 4,000 trucks per
day, according to a study Atlanta completed in 2000.
Pressure for a quick solution is rising in part because of
a development at the corner of Howell Mill and I-75. The former site of a
one-time landmark hotel that had been taken over by prostitutes is slated
to be built into a residential and retail community.
Atlanta officials have met several times with the group
and hope to present recommendations early next year, says Bob Shelor, who
oversees the city's capital projects.
On the southern edge of the industrial district, the group
of Marietta Street supporters is trying to create a vision for their area.
They want to study the area and develop potential solutions with financial
support from the Atlanta Regional Commission, a planning agency.
The effort is getting a push from the redevelopers of
Puritan Mills. They are so bullish that they recently bought a warehouse,
from Mead Corp., that will be renovated into about 35,000 square feet of
rental space.
"You can visualize a very different piece of earth in that
location, not unlike an Atlantic Station type of development," Twining
says. "Big blocks like ours and Mead's, eventually, will become the new
urban town. That could mean putting a street grid back in and building a
mix of residential and retail."
Back at the recycling shop on Howell Mill Road, Melvin
Carmichael isn't alone in marveling at the potential evolution of his old
neighborhood. Star Iron's owner, Elliot Hammer, sees it coming.
"But I say 'Welcome aboard' to all the new
people."
