Atlantic Station residents want more say in the neighborhood’s future
Atlantic Station seemed like the perfect neighborhood for 74-year-old Pamela Mitchell when she moved to Georgia four years ago. The southern California implant wanted to avoid the city’s infamous traffic congestion by living in a walkable community.
It’s a key promise of the development, known as one of largest live-work-play districts in the South. Atlantic Station’s website offers potential new tenants the same promise: “You’ll find yourself in the middle of everything and close to where you need to go all at the same time.”
But residents say recent store closures have shaken their faith that the community will stay that way, particularly with the abrupt loss of the development’s Publix grocery store that shuttered its doors two days after Christmas.
“One of the things that attracted me about this area was the fact that everything was so accessible — the grocery stores, pharmacy, everything,” Mitchell said. “If I want a dozen eggs, I just have to go right up the street.”
Mitchell, like many of her neighbors, said she found out about the Publix’s plan to close on the news, without warning from Atlantic Station management. Soon after, DSW and Banana Republic also shuttered.
“I don’t drive. I don’t want to drive. I don’t have a car. I don’t want one,” said Mitchell, adding the closures create challenges for other seniors and Atlantans with disabilities who live in the development.
“What are we supposed to do?” she asked.
There’s not much they can do.
Satya Bhan, president of the Atlanta Station Civic Association, says the developer’s control of the area has created a major void of resident input in crucial planning decisions. He says the civic association has failed at trying to elect a homeowner candidate to one of the development’s two association boards — currently filled by Hines managers and executives of the financier Morgan Stanley.
“Residents that have bought into Atlantic Station want our homes to be successful,” Bhan said. “And have the local knowledge in order to help steer the entire development to success.”
On a rainy evening in December, a few dozen Atlantic Station residents protesting the recent Publix closure made the chilly walk from the grocery store to the 17th Street Bridge.
Organizers said they were told by Atlantic Station officials that media was barred from covering the protest within the development’s footprint. So, the group walked with picket signs in hand about a half mile away to speak with reporters waiting on the bustling overpass.
It’s a strange reality for residents who live in the private development: Atlantic Station’s streets aren’t public property, so management can dictate where protesters can be and whether media is allowed within its boundaries.
“This community is not trying to create controversy; we are trying to create solutions,” Bhan said. ”Atlantic Station was once held as the nation’s example for urban development — we believe it can still be.”
Residents fight for representation
Billed as a “city within a city” when it opened in 2005, even local government officials have little say or ability to impact what happens at Atlantic Station. In 2015, Hines and Morgan Stanley acquired ownership of the massive mixed-use development for nearly $200 million.
For urban planning experts, the development is a first-of-its-kind project that has sparked new questions.
Darin Givens, co-founder of ThreadATL, a nonprofit advocacy group that promotes good urbanism in Atlanta, said the unique setup means a process that allows for residents’ input isn’t guaranteed.
“Whether it’s a community benefits agreement or a public-private partnership agreement, something has to be established right at the beginning, so residents have a voice within the privately owned property,” Givens said. “The same way residents have a voice in larger, more traditional neighborhoods.”
He pointed to Atlanta’s Neighborhood Planning Unit system — first established under former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson — where residents meet regularly to hash out issues, roundtable with city officials and vote on development changes to their areas.
“It serves as a warning that we can learn from in terms of how we build these large mixed-use, privately-owned developments in Atlanta, and how we expect there to be community input in them,” Givens said.
Community leaders have tried to secure a formal seat on Atlantic Station’s two planning boards through an election process. In an email response to questions from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Hines officials did not say whether it would support resident representation on the boards.
“Resident, tenant and homeowner questions and feedback are welcomed and can be addressed through Atlantic Station property management,” said Vikram Mehra, senior managing director for Hines.
According to the management company, the development’s District Owners’ Association Board is an elected body while the Master Owners’ Association Board has the same structure but is appointed. Documents shared by residents with the AJC show that in both association groups, the corporate owners hold about two-thirds majority voting power.
“The development shares residents’ interest in maintaining convenient access to everyday services and remains aligned in its commitment to the long-term health and vitality of the community,” Mehra said.
Documents sent to tenants in December outlining the 2026 budgets for the District Owners’ Association and Master Owner’s Association list the same five people as members of each — two Hines managers and three Morgan Stanley executives.
The Georgia Secretary of State business filings also lists the primary address for both associations at the Hines office in Houston, Texas.
In 2024, Julie Foerster was one of the resident candidates vying for a seat on the District Owners’ Association. A retired senior executive with the U.S. Department of Treasury, Foerster had been living in The Atlantic residential skyscraper on the property for six years.
After no resident won a seat, Foerster said she reached out to the law firm who conducted the election for voting tallies but never received a response.
Residents’ calls for greater transparency were also prompted by questions about a 12% developer fee that the residents pay to Morgan Stanley that’s baked into the association’s overall operating budgets. That’s on top of a 3% management fee paid to Hines.
“With my financial background, I noticed that we were paying a lot of money to Atlantic Station,” Foerster said. “I wanted to fully understand what we were paying for.”
According to Hines officials, the fee covers services like “security, upkeep, programming and capital improvements that benefit the entire community but are not fully captured within the individual association budgets.”
“The fees are established and reviewed through the existing governance structure, with oversight by the boards,” Mehra said through email, adding that the fees “help ensure that Atlantic Station remains well maintained, well managed and positioned for long-term success.”
Local elected officials can’t help
The loss of Publix, Atlantic Station’s only fresh food option, thrust the development into media headlines at the end of last year. Residents wanted answers on what led the grocery store to shutter and what the property manager was doing to prevent others from following suit.
“The lack of communication about the whys and what’s happening from Atlantic Station is very disappointing,” Foerster said. “It seems like it’s secretly held to the vest, and then — bam — a store is gone.”
Residents weren’t the only people with questions.
Atlanta City Council member Byron Amos, who represents the area, told the AJC he’s seen Publix leave communities in a similar fashion when he was head of the Vine City Civic Association before taking office.
The Publix on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive shuttered on Christmas Eve in 2009. Crime rates were cited in that case, which lines up with the reason some residents have heard for Publix pulling out of Atlantic Station, despite targeted enforcement meant to address crime in the area.
This time, Amos said the city is willing to help keep other stores in Atlantic Station afloat.
“I cannot allow the energy around Atlantic Station to be shifted to Centennial Yards,” Amos said, referring to the $5 billion redevelopment of downtown’s Gulch. “If we lose the things that take place in Atlantic Station, it becomes another dead zone in my district. So that’s one of the reasons I think we as a city must be involved.”
Amos said he’s willing to have conversations with Atlantic Station about utilizing Invest Atlanta, the city’s development arm, to help with rent costs or with tapping into the city’s newly established “Atlanta Super Market Fund” to court another grocer.
“But one of my biggest issues is the structure of Atlantic Station,” he said. “Because the people that vote for me, the people that look at me as their as their leadership, I’m having to tell them the real reality that you actually live on private property.”
The council member pointed to the lack of resident representation on the property’s boards as a roadblock to city aid.
“For me to have any conversation with Atlantic Station to accept any type of government money or public money, I have to have some residents on the boards,” he said. “It’s taxation without representation. There’s no other way to put it.”
Givens, with ThreadATL, said city officials may be wading into uncharted legal territory by urging Hines to create resident seats on their boards.
“There’s not a legal framework that would allow the city to come in and overlay a community benefits agreement or anything similar to that in Atlantic Station that would demand the owners, Hines, to listen to the residents in a new way,” he said. “It would be a request. There’s no way to force them to do that.”
Mehra, with Hines, called retail “naturally cyclical” and “tenant turnover a normal part of the evolution of any major mixed-use destination.” The property is still actively pursuing a new grocery option, he said, and doesn’t anticipate any additional store closures.
“Atlantic Station continues to adapt and reinvest in ways that strengthen its position as one of Atlanta’s leading retail and lifestyle districts,” Mehra said, pointing to new storefronts including Busy Bee Café, Playa Bowls and En Vogue Nail Bar, all of which are scheduled to open this year.
About the Author
Riley Bunch is a reporter on the local government team at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution covering Atlanta City Hall. She covers the mayor and Atlanta City Council while also keeping an eye on the city’s diverse neighborhoods.
