If the proposed new stadium for the Atlanta Falcons were open today, the urban trek for fans along Northside Drive would be dominated by a behemoth convention facility, a small scattering of houses, a school and acres of parking lots.
What concerns some neighborhood and business leaders is that the landscape could be the same six years from now when the stadium is timed to open.
With little information available other than a feasibility study on the projected $700 million facility, they worry that their community would gain a monster-size arena that hosts only eight to 10 home games a year.
That’s not enough use, they said, to attract restaurants, offices or hotels that could bring jobs and act as a development catalyst for Vine City, lower Marietta Street and English Avenue.
“I don’t think it will be a bad thing or a good thing for the neighborhood,” said Curt Flaherty, an architect and resident of the Marietta Street corridor. “It would just be.”
That concerns residents who are hoping for the kind of development that is happening on the northern side of the Marietta Street-Northside Drive intersection, where shopping centers, restaurants and condominiums have sprung to life in the past five years.
By contrast, Marietta Street near the intersection with Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard, on which the proposed stadium would be built, is dotted by unattended gravel lots, crumbling sidewalks and large utility poles. The foremost sign of life is the Giant, an old five-story warehouse converted into a condominiums.
“We don’t need any more nothing,” said Max White, a member of the Marietta Street Artery Association.
Georgia Tech economist Danny Boston disagrees. He said there are abundant development opportunities, but collaboration will be key.
“It certainly has potential, but a lot of it depends on dialog between the stakeholders,” he said.
The Georgia World Congress Center Authority, which oversees the Georgia Dome and the site on which the new stadium would be built, released a study late last month proposing a 65,000-seat, open-air stadium in what is now the GWCC’s marshaling field.
If agreed to, construction would start in 2013 or 2014 and the stadium would open in 2017. The closest MARTA stops would be at the Georgia Dome, Vine City and Civic Center. Walkways would be constructed over the streets for pedestrians.
The authority said it is entering negotiations with the Falcons to determine whether to proceed with a new stadium or to expand the Dome.
Those walking the area now will find it far removed from the action toward Centennial Olympic Park and the heart of Atlanta’s visitor activity. Northside Drive has wide, well-maintained sidewalks. Bethune Elementary School and small homes dot the hill closet to the Georgia Dome MARTA stop. A lengthy stretch of the walk to the stadium site is reflected in the floor-to-ceiling glass of the GWCC’s Building C, which looms like a gleaming fortress over the area.
Beyond that, though, there’s nothing but a prairie of parking lots. No restaurants, activities for children or accommodations.
An indirect walk along Marietta Street to Ivan Allen yields more activity, or at least at first. If all goes well, the new Football College Hall of Fame will be open on the street in 2013. A short distance farther are restaurants in the Luckie-Marietta District, including Stats, Rise and Der Biergarten. Embassy Suites and the Hilton Garden Inn offer lodging.
Once pedestrians pass the restaurants and a few converted condos, however, the area becomes less inviting. Train tracks cut through the area, pushing low-slung, two- and three-story vacant buildings right up to the sidewalk. Walking is hazardous. Uneven pavement juts up in places and the sidewalk becomes increasingly narrow. The NFL has few such uninviting thresholds.
Suzanne Bair, president of the Marietta Street Artery Association, said it is difficult to envision the project, with so little information available. Residents are concerned about parking, the need to take away a traffic lane on Marietta Street and noise.
“I live 150 feet away from the stadium,” she said, “and having Metallica playing 150 feet away from my door is a concern to me.”
Legacy Property Group President David Marvin, who owns several hotels and restaurants in the area, said the stadium site doesn’t make sense. It’s too far from MARTA stops, he said, and is in the opposite direction of where city and business leaders are trying to better connect downtown, an initiative including the proposed multimodal station, streetcars and Central Atlanta Progress’ Green Line project.
“To me the stadium would be better sited on the other side of the Dome,” he said. “The success of it will rest in being close to lots of things. It needs to be part of a larger fabric.”
Some worry the site will become another Turner Field. Constructed for the 1996 Summer Olympics, the stadium, now home to the Atlanta Braves, was supposed to spur economic activity in the area. But 15 years later, it’s an island surrounded by parking lots.
Cassie Branum, an urban designer with the architecture firm Perkins and Will, said size and dialog matter. Branum and Georgia Tech students studied successful entertainment and development districts near baseball parks in six cities. They found that a strong transit plan, an organizational structure that included community and leadership voices, a lot of patience and small, walkable blocks made the districts viable.
“Most importantly, a clear decision-making body needs to be in place with the proper authority to have decisions carried out,” Branum said. “This typically works well with a public-private partnership.”
Byron Amos, president of Capacity Builders Inc. in Vine City and former president of the neighborhoods civic association, said that he hopes there are development possibilities. And if there are, he hopes they are handled better than when the Georgia Dome was constructed in 1992.
About $8 million was set aside to help the community. But instead of building houses in a “live-work-play”-styled planned community, new houses were plunked down haphazardly here and there. New homes went up next to ones inhabited by drug users, which turned off potential buyers and left the neighborhood wanting.
“We’ve learned from our failures with the Dome,” he said. “We want to do it right this time.”
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