Arriving in Atlanta, I was expecting to be greeted by hot weather, heavy traffic and Nene Leaks but I found none of the above. Instead, I was welcomed by pleasant heat, an easy-to-use public transit system, and a stellar group of Young Leaders who know their city front to back. Less than 36 hours later, I was already on my way home but left having seen more of Atlanta than I ever thought possible.

With ten stops on the agenda, I was a little skeptical we’d fit it all in. In lieu of a detailed and drawn out journal entry, I thought I’d hit you with two major themes to keep in mind if you ever have the chance to visit.

Below-grade is the new above-grade

Apparently the Underground was the coolest nightlife destination in the city a generation or two ago. I am paraphrasing a bit here, but our tour guide said something like ‘my mom used to get hammered here’. Although the term ‘in the heart of’ seems to be written in the overview section of every real estate development’s website, it’s hard to argue its usage in this context – Underground literally sits next to the Five Points MARTA stop which connects the north to south line with the east to west line. It all started back in the 20’s when the City decided to raise the street level by a 1.5 stories, which left numerous storefronts abandoned, in order to accommodate vehicular travel. About 40 years later, two Georgia Tech alumni decided to re-open the boarded-up storefronts and transform the below-grade space into an entertainment district. Because Fulton County (where Atlanta is located) was the only county to allow alcoholic mixed drinks, the Underground quickly emerged as THE place to go (makes sense). Think Bourbon Street but below the street-level not sea-level.

Coca-Cola is headquartered in Atlanta and I found this vintage sign in the depths of the Underground.

Once competing counties finally starting serving rum and Cokes, the Underground’s popularity quickly faded. Fast forward to present day and an enormous project is underway to re-imagine this historic and incredibly unique space. Private and public partners believe the now blighted area needs a dose of new residential (market-rate, affordable and student) to return the Underground to its former glory. Healthy economic returns from the residential and anchor retailer’s above-grade will help underwrite an edgier, local scene below-grade. Maybe a Target or Kroger could take over the large mall space and local restaurateurs like Michael Lennox could be recruited to re-think the food scene. Construction has yet to start, but if you swing by in the next two-three years I think you’ll find a very different Underground.

When Your Thesis Becomes Real

The Beltline installs pop-up art to enhance the trails edges.

I always thought of a thesis in terms of a theoretical paper, but after visiting Atlanta I now know of three examples where a college thesis has actually been put into action. The first is a friend from college whose grandfather wrote a thesis, used it as the business plan for a new company, and now owns an international utility services company. His grandfather’s name is on the wall of the new business school if that puts things into perspective. The other is a story my mom told me about Fed Ex and how the guy who started it based it on his college thesis. I’ve never fact checked this story, but either way Fed Ex has been pretty successful (side note – in both instances the professor graded the projects poorly). The third and final example is the story of the Atlanta Beltline. Attempting to change Atlanta’s reputation of a city designed for the car rather than the person, a Georgia Tech grad student came up with a brilliant idea of buying up various railroad right of ways circling the city and transforming them into a connected and cohesive walk, bike and run path. The City eventually bought into the idea and a group was formed to implement the project. They started with two relatively small

Ponce City Market is a true mixed-use hub at over 2M square feet of retail, office and residential space – directly benefiting from its connection to the Beltline.

sections of the east and west side of the city and it’s been an overnight success. Similar to New York’s Highline and Philly’s forthcoming Railpark, the Beltline’s driving principal is the same – create an attractive space for people of all ages and backgrounds to use and see the city from an entirely different perspective than the window of a car or office building. The activity on the Beltline has been incredible and the amount of private investment around its edges has been tremendous (I think the ROI is something like 3 to 1). Once complete, the Beltline will stretch over 22 miles and connect 45 different neighborhoods making it one the largest urban greenways project in the country.

Written by Pete Cramer. Director, Development at Wexford Science & Technology, and ULI Young Leader University Outreach co-chair.