The on-again, off-again redevelopment of a downtown Atlanta landmark has been rebooted once more.
Wisconsin-based developer Gorman & Co. has been tapped to redevelop the abandoned brick Art Moderne style building at 143 Alabama St. SW that over the years has been home to The Atlanta Constitution newspaper and a Georgia Power facility. Gorman plans to transform the city-owned building into retail and nearly 200 apartments, almost all of which will be reserved at below-market rate monthly rents.
Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development arm, selected the firm after issuing a public call for development partners over the summer, which was the latest attempt in a series of failed efforts to revitalize the eyesore near Five Points.
Gorman’s first goal is to prune the shrubs and trees growing out of the building, stabilize the structure and wrap the building in digital signage before the first whistle of the 2026 World Cup, which includes Atlanta as a host city. Later development phases include converting the existing building into housing units and erecting a new residential building on an adjacent parcel.
Courtesy Invest Atlanta
Courtesy Invest Atlanta
Gorman’s appointment begins a new chapter for the building, which has sat vacant since Georgia Power, its most recent tenant, left in the 1970s.
The five-story building was built in 1947 and was the short-lived home of The Atlanta Constitution until it merged with The Atlanta Journal in 1953. The 95,000-square-foot building, which the city purchased in 1995, was placed on the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2024 “Places in Peril” list because of its Art Moderne architectural style, which is a rarity in Atlanta.
Gorman is not the first developer the city has selected to lead the project. In 2016, Invest Atlanta placed its first public call and selected Pope & Land and its partner Place Properties. Their vision of turning the building into offices, retail space and 112 apartments never came to fruition and work on the structure didn’t begin.
Invest Atlanta published on its website a fact sheet on Gorman’s revitalization plans, which include restoring the building’s exterior by May 2026. The building’s residential conversion is expected to be complete by 2027 and will include 46 units. The adjacent new residential building is estimated to be delivered by the following year and will add another 151 units.
Courtesy Invest Atlanta
Courtesy Invest Atlanta
The apartments will range from single bedroom units to three-bedroom apartments, and all but seven will be reserved at monthly rents below market rate for tenants who meet certain income requirements.
The developer agreed to reserve some units for residents who make less than 30% of the area median income, 50% AMI and 80% AMI. For an individual tenant, 30% AMI means their income must be less than $21,450, while the income threshold for 80% AMI is $57,200.
The pending reboot of the Alabama Street building comes as work is getting underway on the next phase of the sweeping Centennial Yards project in downtown’s Gulch and as new owners are beginning their reimagining of 10 blocks of South Downtown.
Future of Downtown
This story is part of an occasional series by the AJC to look at the future of Atlanta’s downtown. Several high-profile developments are poised to bring billions of dollars into the city’s core while it continues to grapple with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and a challenging real estate financing market. Downtown will also soon garner international attention when the World Cup comes to Atlanta in 2026, providing a deadline for the city and downtown stakeholders to make promised improvements.
