A proposal to build apartments on a site that includes the historic Atlanta Daily World building on Auburn Avenue has drawn the ire of some local preservationists.
The developer, the Integral Group, submitted a demolition application to the Atlanta Urban Design Commission in January. Integral wants to build 91 units to serve the intown rental market, including students at nearby Georgia State University. GSU is not part of the project.
An online petition contains more than 900 signatures to save the building at 145 Auburn Avenue. Preservationists also plan to show up in force on March 28 for a public hearing before the commission. A three-member panel is studying the impact of the proposal and can make a recommendation or ask for more time for further review.
The Atlanta Daily World, the city's oldest black newspaper, was recently acquired by a partnership led by owners of Detroit-based Real Times Media. The paper operated on that site until 2008, when the building was severely damaged by a tornado. The newspaper now operates out of a location in East Point.
A joint statement from Atlanta Daily World Publisher M. Alexis Scott and Valerie Edwards, executive vice president of the Integral Group, said the Scott family approached Integral about buying the building after they determined they would be unable to restore and renovate it. The initiative was to "allow the building the be renovated while preserving the legacy and historical significance of the building."
Integral's offer is contingent upon the developer's ability to get approval to demolish portions of the building while preserving the facade. The developer contends a lack of investment in the building after so many years restricts a full economic recovery in the Auburn district.
"Ultimately, Mother Nature plays the role of demolition contractor and the community suffers for decades with an eyesore that prevents the community from benefiting from an area recovery," the statement said in part.
Boyd Coons, executive director of the Atlanta Preservation Center, said the Daily World building is part of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic District,which was established to help memorialize the work of King and the civil rights movement. Auburn Avenue, sometimes called Sweet Auburn, was also the site of a number of successful black businesses. The Daily World was a primary source of information to the black community throughout the civil rights era.
"What happened here [during the movement] affected the entire world and Atlanta was expected to be good stewards," Coons said. "The parameters have been violated over and over again. ... You can't have an historic district if you don't have historic buildings."
He said several other historic buildings have been torn down over the years on Auburn Avenue.
"Atlanta can say, ‘Yes, we're the cradle of the civil rights movement,' but we've destroyed any evidence of that," he said.
Jesse Clark, executive director of the Historic District Development Corp., a nonprofit community development group that has helped revitalize and preserve the community, has reviewed the plans and he doesn't think enough of the original building will be left.
"We feel like what is left is a faux Disneyland stage set," he said. "It will be a caricature of what used to be there."
Clark said a community task force is also reviewing the application and those findings will be presented at the March 28 hearing. He said the group is willing to work with the developers for a solution that addresses preservation concerns.
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