Atlanta Civic Center's $1 billion overhaul has its first building topped out

Nine months after groundbreaking, the first new building on the 19-acre Old Fourth Ward site has topped out, the leading edge of a plan for 1,500 mixed-income apartments, a hotel, offices and a rebuilt performing arts center.

MILESTONEOld Fourth Ward, 19-acre CivicCenter siteAug 13, 2026

The first new construction at the Atlanta Civic Center redevelopment has fully topped out at 251 Pine Street, with window installation and facade work now underway, nine months after the project broke ground. That first building holds 148 units of affordable senior housing on the northeast corner of the 19-acre Old Fourth Ward site, next to Renaissance Park.

It is the opening piece of a roughly $1 billion master plan from The Michaels Organization and Republic Properties Corporation, with TVS leading cultural-space design inside a larger SOM- and GVSA-led plan, that ultimately calls for five more residential high-rises, a 10-story hotel, a 12-story office building, a public school and 1,500 mixed-income apartments total.

The site's 1960s-era Municipal Auditorium and Performing Arts Center building will be preserved, though its future use has not been finalized.

Why it matters

It's the first physical proof that a decade of stalled plans for the old Civic Center site is actually under construction.

JurisdictionCity of Atlanta
Scale$1B master plan; 1,500 mixed-income units total
TimelineGroundbreaking ~Nov. 2025; first building topped out Aug. 2026
WhoThe Michaels Organization, Republic Properties Corporation, TVS, SOM
Sources and documents2 sources

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