On Thursday, October 21, 2021 Partnership Gwinnett hosted the Metro Atlanta Redevelopment summit (MARS) at Studio Movie Grill in Duluth, GA. The summit convened elected officials, city and county staff, and development industry leadership to highlight the many redevelopment projects shaping the region. Ellen Dunham Jones, professor and director of the Master of Science in Urban Design at Georgia Tech, gave the keynote address. Her work in retrofitting shed light on urban design principles behind the redesigning of suburbs and highlighted many of the aspects included in redevelopments which received recognition during the summit.
Three awards were given to small, medium, and large redevelopments. Congratulations to the City of Jonesboro and Hogan Construction on their success of Broad Street Plaza in Downtown Jonesboro. Broad Street Plaza received the Small Redevelopment Award recognizing a partner whose development project is under 1 acre. The Medium Redevelopment Award, recognizing a development between 1 and 9 acres, this year went to The Brunswick, a multi-family development in Norcross which was the result of a public private partnership between the City of Norcross, Norcross’ Downtown Development Authority, and Gateway Ventures. Finally, the Large Redevelopment Award recognized the work of North American Properties on the redevelopment of Colony Square in Midtown Atlanta. Colony Square is mixed-use development over 10 acres and boasts Class A office space, retail, a food hall, luxury residences, a hotel, and 40,000 SF of greenspace.
In addition to those developments which received recognition, the summit also highlighted trends and shifts in the market which are propelling redevelopment across the region. A panel discussion on the impacts breweries are making on downtown areas included insight and perspectives from StillFire Brewing, Gate City Brewing, and Reformation Brewery. The panel explored the Georgia legislative changes which have allowed greater ease in the creation of new breweries, the impact of breweries in cultivating a sense of community in downtowns, and the need to continue to support distribution law changes in order to improve ways in which breweries can integrate more seamlessly with their local communities and businesses.
Congratulations to Emory Morsberger for being awarded the Redevelopment Champion Award. Morsberger was recognized for his roles in transforming Ponce City Market as well as Downtown Lawrenceville.
The Council is once again elated to partner with Partnership Gwinnett on the Metro Atlanta Redevelopment Summit. Congratulations to those who were recognized for their great redevelopments. We are continually inspired by the important and novel work of cities, counties, and the development and real estate industry professionals in creating the spaces and places that make the Atlanta region a great place to live, work, and play.