Technology Square Atlanta, Georgia
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Technology Square Atlanta, Georgia Project Type: Mixed-Use/Multi-Use Case No: C035013 Year: 2005 SUMMARY Technology Square is a two-block-long complex of five four- to six-story buildings on eight acres (3.2 hectares) in the Midtown neighborhood of Atlanta developed by the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Although the structures maintain an outward focus on Midtown’s major streets (West Peachtree and Fifth streets, NW), the project also includes inner plazas and courtyards. The anchor tenant of the $180 million project is Georgia Tech’s College of Management, housed in a LEED-certified building. Also on site are continuing education facilities, a 250-room hotel, a 1,500-space parking garage, and 11 shops, including a campus bookstore managed by Barnes & Noble. Designed to look like a trolley, a shuttle runs along Fifth Street over 12 lanes of freeway, moving students to and from the main 450-acre (182.1-hectare) Georgia Tech campus. Technology Square is an example of university-sponsored development that has helped transform a run-down neighborhood into a vibrant district. FEATURES Mixed-Use Complex Trolley Infill Development Green Building Technology Square Atlanta, Georgia Project Type: Mixed Use/Multiuse Volume 35 Number 13 July–September 2005 Case Number: C035013 PROJECT TYPE Technology Square is a two-block-long complex of five four- to six-story buildings on eight acres (3.2 hectares) in the Midtown neighborhood of Atlanta developed by the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Although the structures maintain an outward focus on Midtown’s major streets (West Peachtree and Fifth streets, NW), the project also includes inner plazas and courtyards. The anchor tenant of the $180 million project is Georgia Tech’s College of Management, housed in a LEED-certified building. Also on site are continuing education facilities, a 250-room hotel, a 1,500-space parking garage, and 11 shops, including a campus bookstore managed by Barnes & Noble. Designed to look like a trolley, a shuttle runs along Fifth Street over 12 lanes of freeway, moving students to and from the main 450-acre (182.1-hectare) Georgia Tech campus. Technology Square is an example of university-sponsored development that has helped transform a run-down neighborhood into a vibrant district. LOCATION Central City SITE SIZE 8 acres/3.2 hectares LAND USES University, Downtown Hotel, Community Retail Center KEYWORDS/SPECIAL FEATURES Mixed-Use Complex Trolley Infill Development Green Building DEVELOPER Georgia Institute of Technology Division of Administration and Finance Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0325 404-894-3361 Fax: 404-894-1277 www.admin-fin.gatech.edu DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Jones Lang LaSalle 3500 Piedmont Road, NE Atlanta, Georgia 30305 404-995-6300 Fax: 404-995-2184 www.us.am.joneslanglasalle.com/en-US ARCHITECT Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback & Associates 1230 Peachtree Street, NE Atlanta, Georgia 30309 404-888-6600 Fax: 404-888-6700 www.tvsa.com GENERAL DESCRIPTION Technology Square is complex of five buildings on eight acres (3.2 hectares) in Midtown Atlanta developed by the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). The anchor tenant of the $180 million project is the College of Management, housed in a LEED-certified building. Also on site are offices, continuing education facilities, a 250-room hotel, a plaza and quads, a 1,500-space parking garage, and retail businesses, including a campus bookstore managed by Barnes & Noble. These varied uses are spread among four- to six-story buildings that fuse traditional brick with modernist referents such as glass and steel. Wide sidewalks and double rows of trees line the perimeter. Designed to look like a trolley, a shuttle runs along Fifth Street, NW, over 12 lanes of freeway, moving students to and from the main 450-acre (182.1-hectare) Georgia Tech campus. Prior to the project’s completion in August 2003, most of the retail spaces in the square had been leased. When the fall semester started that year, hundreds of students and faculty plus alumni and businesspeople began to course through the square each day. From the outset, the hotel exceeded occupancy projections. Two years later, Technology Square has established itself as an example of a quickly completed, successful infill project—undertaken by a public developer. This achievement is largely the result of two converging visions: one for a university, the other for a neighborhood. THE SITE Encompassing two blocks, Technology Square is bounded by West Peachtree Street, NW, on the east and Interstate 75/Interstate 85 on the west, with Fifth and Fourth streets, NW, forming its north and south boundaries, respectively. The site lies immediately north of downtown in Midtown Atlanta. At the time when Georgia Tech began to assemble property for the project, residents of Atlanta often referred to Midtown as the city's armpit. Midtown residents felt the same way about the site, which included land that had sat vacant for five years and contained deserted buildings (previously a restaurant and Cadillac dealership) hosting prostitutes, vagrants, and drug dealers. The parcel did, however, have redeeming features. It was flat and offered good highway and subway access. The Biltmore Hotel, a city landmark, sat just across from it on West Peachtree Street. Running parallel to West Peachtree Street and just two blocks east of the site is the famous north-south corridor, Peachtree Street, as emblematic of Atlanta as the Braves. BACKGROUND AND DEVELOPMENT PROCESS In 1978, with gunshots, sirens, and motorcycle engines setting the ambience of the neighborhood, area residents formed the Midtown Alliance. Initially focusing on grass-roots networking, the organization later expanded its goals to include beautification and cultural programming. In spite of these efforts, 66 percent of the neighborhood was vacant by 1996. If things were looking bad for Midtown, they were not looking much better across the interstate at Georgia Tech. The deteriorating campus was girded behind fences due to crime in adjacent neighborhoods. Moreover, a state audit had cited the administration for a number of irregularities. Out went the old president in 1995 and in came a new one, Wayne Clough from the University of Washington. From the start of his term, Clough was upfront about his vision for the school—putting Georgia Tech on the map as a major research university. And he realized that it would not happen without an upgrade to the surrounding community. To further these goals, he put Robert Thompson, a former colleague, in charge of a new administration and finance department. Soon thereafter, Thompson launched a master-planning processes, inviting the Midtown Alliance to participate. The nonprofit group in turn appointed him a board director. When Atlanta hosted the 1996 Summer Olympics, Georgia Tech served as the Olympic Village, housing 15,000 athletes. Afterward, the university had an extra 6,500 beds. These were filled without increasing enrollment so that, overnight, the campus became vastly more residential in nature. Suddenly, the need for safe streets (with entertainment, dining, and shopping options) became more urgent. The city of Atlanta had already demolished a dilapidated public housing project south of campus to improve conditions around Georgia Tech for the Olympics. Home Park, a residential neighborhood north of campus, was slowly renovating on its own; the administration abetted efforts by funding a daycare center. Pursuant to Georgia Tech’s master plan, Thompson shopped for bargains in an industrial tract west of campus. That left Midtown to the east, also viewed as an area for potential expansion. By that time, Susan Menheim, president of the Midtown Alliance, was conducting the visioning stage of an economic development initiative called “Blueprint Midtown.” At 50 varied settings ranging from corporate breakfasts to church suppers, the alliance asked area residents and stakeholders to visualize the neighborhood of their dreams. The consensus: people wanted lively streets—a smaller, southern version of midtown Manhattan. Thompson had his own convergent ideas but was holding his cards close. At a real estate conference, he had learned about a University of Pennsylvania project called “Sansom Common.” (Now named “University Square,” the project is a mixed-use district combining a university bookstore with hotel, conference, retail, and dining amenities.) Imagining an equivalent project, he hired the Philadelphia-based design firm of Wallace, Roberts & Todd to formulate a conceptual plan for the freeway tract. Meanwhile, the Atlanta office of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), a real estate consulting firm, executed a feasibility study. Two facts stood out: 1) the campus was severely under retailed, and 2) there was built-in demand for hotel/conference facilities. Because the regents of the University of Georgia system had made it clear they did not have the resources to finance Georgia Tech’s ambitious master plan, which called for the construction of one large new building each year for ten years, Thompson had already begun to court the Georgia Tech Foundation as an alternative funding source. Sitting on an endowment of roughly $300 million and with a capital campaign underway, the foundation seemed like a perfect solution to the administration’s financial predicament. There was, however, a small problem. Up until then, the foundation had focused on acquiring capital, preserving it, and using the interest generated to fund scholarships and professorships. Real estate entailed a huge conceptual stretch for the conservative institution. Thompson and Clough eventually persuaded the foundation to adopt their vision of Georgia Tech and assist with financial implementation. (The vision proved so compelling that the capital campaign raised $412 million more than originally targeted, with $180 million allocated for new buildings.) But later, when Thompson presented a specific request—Technology Square—the foundation again balked. Traditional academic buildings were one thing, but leveraging the endowment to finance the construction of a 250-room hotel/conference center off campus—in Midtown of all places—seemed like a very risky proposition.