High-end residential housing could be part of the transformation of Underground Atlanta, according to a report from 11 Alive News.
The beleaguered Downtown attraction would become a mixed-use project with the empty storefronts on Upper Alabama Avenue becoming homes, according to Mayor Kasim Reed.
“You’re going have to go vertical and really turn Underground into some people’s living room, so what I think you going to see with the new development is to have some vertical construction more residential,” Reed said.
Reed says some of the retail space in the subterranean part of the project will stay retail. But with people living upstairs, the struggling shops in Underground would no longer depend on tourists for traffic.
In May, the city bought out the remainder of an 88-year lease with the project’s operating partner Dan O’Leary for $8.8 million. The city’s economic development arm, Invest Atlanta, is currently seeing a buyer for Underground.
