By Nadine Melo (Atlanta)
One wouldn’t usually equate parks
and cultural activities with real estate investment, but Atlanta has been
setting the pace for what that correlation looks like.
Since 2005, Atlanta
BeltLine Inc. has used the manifesto created in Ryan Gravel’s 1999 Georgia
Tech master’s thesis on architecture and city planning to put into practice a
sustainable redevelopment project that will connect 45 local neighborhoods via
a 22-mile loop of multi-use trails and parks.
The project, aptly named the BeltLine,
stems from the idea of new
urbanism, which takes a human-centric focus when it comes to designing and
planning urban areas. New urbanism takes into consideration land use,
transportation, and urban form to create communities that encourage
sustainability, a sense of place, economic progress and historical
preservation.
Since the BeltLine’s inception, more
than $3.7
billion of new and private development has been generated within a half mile
of it. The project has also created an influx of approximately $450 million of
public and private dollars into the creation of infrastructure that helps
connect Atlanta’s inner neighborhoods.
In particular, the area of Inman
Park has seen demand for creative office space as companies flock to the area
to attract and appeal to the next up-and-coming workforce, millennials. As much
as we hate the dreaded M-word, the fact of the matter is that millennials are
impacting the real estate industry by forcing companies to not only change how
they work, but also where they work.
Urban developments like the BeltLine
are attractive to Millennials because it appeals to their sense of work-life
balance and the market is responding to that demand. This trend is best
evidenced by the Jamestown award-winning Ponce City Market project,
which redeveloped a former Sears regional distribution center into a 2.1
million-sf mixed-use project featuring specialty retailers, office spaces,
restaurants, and apartments – all while sitting parallel to the BeltLine.
Additionally, the project has spurred
other development activities, such as the redevelopment of a new Kroger grocery
store that will feature 360,000 sf of office space on a lot adjacent to the BeltLine.
In fact, the influence of the BeltLine has managed to reach the suburbs, which
aim to replicate the same type of growth and development that the project has initiated within Atlanta’s city limits.
The BeltLine’s success has enabled
Atlanta to act as an incubator for these types of projects and a model for
other cities to follow. For example, in Alabama, the City of Birmingham
recently opened Railroad Park in 2010 and Rotary Trail in 2016. These projects
borrow from the BeltLine concept of repurposing an old railroad bed in Magic
City’s downtown area into a walkable space that connects two of the city’s
major historical attractions while providing outdoor amenities for people to
enjoy.
So what is it about these types
of urban developments that make them so lucrative for the real estate industry?
Redevelopment projects like the BeltLine help provide value to a city, making
it easier for us in the real estate industry to sell, lease or manage space.
They also help create a healthy economic environment that is sure to attract – and
please – investors.
If you would
like more information on where the BeltLine is heading next and the development
projects following suit, check out BeltLine.org
for more information.
(Nadine Melo is a Marketing Co-ordinator
based in Avison Young’s Atlanta office. She works closely with the Atlanta office’s
capital markets group.)
