South Downtown flooded with more than 40,000 visitors in June and July during Atlanta’s run as a World Cup host city, reinvigorating an overlooked neighborhood four blocks from the Georgia state capitol.
After two-plus years of renovations, construction, and courting new businesses and restaurants, the developers of South Downtown plan to turn their attention to attracting residents and building on the neighborhood’s forward momentum. Business owners who invested in the neighborhood are on board, telling Rough Draft they’re “in it for the long haul.”
With the World Cup in the rearview mirror, Jon Birdsong, CEO of SoDo ATL, the real estate company behind South Downtown, said they’re wrapping up Phase I of the development. Their next move is to “let the market marinate,” before pulling the trigger on Phase II.
Establishing a neighborhood
Covering a 10-block swath of downtown Atlanta, the redevelopment of South Downtown is due, in part, to a $140 million investment by venture capitalist and entrepreneur David Cummings. His investment is in addition to an active neighborhood association and millions of dollars from the city. Cummings’ investment is going toward converting buildings – many historic, turn-of-the-century – into 140 housing units and office and retail spaces.
“Phase I was everything related to attracting and establishing tenants,” Birdsong told Rough Draft. “We’ve invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the neighborhood, and we have restaurants open, but we also have several places that need to be leased out.”
Birdsong attracted attention last month when SoDo ATL unexpectedly laid off four full-time employees who oversaw specific project sites, then announced they were scaling back to get South Downtown to a more “sustainable state,” as first reported by SaportaReport. The move came as a surprise to many Atlantans, especially considering that 25 of the 58 historic buildings, and only 8% of the surface parking lots acquired by SoDo ATL, are in development.
“We still have a lot of work to do. It is not yet a 24/7, thriving neighborhood, but we know that. We know it’s going to take time, and we are committed,” said April Stammel, who handles SoDo ATL marketing and engagement.
Birdsong said ensuring the businesses and restaurants are thriving is “goal number one” for the first phase of South Downtown.
Current tenants include Brewhouse Cafe, Delilah’s Everyday Soul, Broad Street BBQ, Glide Pizza, El Tesoro, Bottle Rocket, Spiller Park Coffee, The Junction, and Tyde Tate Kitchen. Specialty retailers like KMM & Co., Brown Toy Box, vinyl store Crates ATL, and Village Books also found space in South Downtown. Food festival Smorgasburg Atlanta takes over the parking lot between Mitchell Street and Trinity Avenue every weekend.
New restaurants Ida’s Kitchen Counter and Mule Train should open in August, and Estrellita should open this winter.
Birdsong and Cummings purchased the South Downtown redevelopment project from German developer Newport RE in 2023 after the company’s investor funding collapsed and it was forced to sell its real estate portfolio. SoDo ATL picked up where Newport left off.
Atlanta Tech Village (ATV), co-owned by Birdsong and Cummings, is one of the largest hubs for the start-up tech community. ATV opened a second location in January 2025 on Mitchell Street in the former Sylvan Hotel.
“We chose to put our second Atlanta Tech Village location in South Downtown not because it was the easy thing to do, but because it was the right thing to do. Downtown needs entrepreneurship and innovation,” Cummings wrote on X.
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Lobbying firm Ohio River South established a neighborhood office long before the World Cup. AI marketing technology company AdPipe moved its headquarters to South Downtown in September 2025 and raised $12 million, with a goal to grow from 35 employees to 50 by the end of 2026. Pediatric healthcare company Dr. Noze Best, a product of the Atlanta tech community, relocated its headquarters to South Downtown in October 2025.
Birdsong and his team didn’t just court these businesses, he said, they also helped build out physical locations. He called the two-year effort “a heroic lift” by current and future tenants and the SoDo ATL team. The businesses are committed to the neighborhood, signing 10- and 20-year leases, Birdsong added.
“We have been very forthcoming from the beginning that this is a long-term endeavor. This was never meant to be a two-year fix of a neighborhood that hasn’t gotten attention for a long time. I think we’ve done an incredible job. I’m so proud,” Stammel said.
Restaurant owners weigh in
Spiller Park Coffee founder Dale Donchey, who opened a Mitchell Street location in 2024, said Atlanta’s hosting bid for the World Cup had not been announced when he signed the lease.
Donchey’s coffee shop was the second food-related business to open in South Downtown, following Tyde Tate Thai Kitchen. He and other tenants signed on because they believed in the neighborhood.
“There was always going to be longevity for me to be there, so I’m in it for the long haul,” Donchey said of Spiller Park’s South Downtown location.
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Like several South Downtown restaurants, Broad Street BBQ opened right before the World Cup and the foot traffic that came with it. Co-owner Jason Furst said during a match week, the restaurant could generate $2,000 one day, and $20,000 the next.
Furst is realistic about the ebb and flow of South Downtown, where football games, concerts, and other big events at nearby Mercedes-Benz Stadium and State Farm Arena often drive foot traffic to the area.
“What I’m more interested in is [getting] 2,000 people down there every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday,” Furst said. “I want a neighborhood.”
Donchey agreed that South Downtown’s viability lies in residential density. He told Rough Draft that until enough people live in the neighborhood, business owners will “yo-yo” their hours.
“It cannot be people who work there and leave [every day]. You’re not going to get restaurant life that way,” Donchey explained.
Housing is key
According to Birdsong’s online posts, limited data shows that if housing is built downtown, people will move there.
“We’re transitioning from a phase of building at all costs, which we’ve done for the past two and a half years, to maximizing operational efficiency. It’s going to be like this for the next 50 years in South Downtown,” Birdsong said. “There’s going to be times when there are cranes and development and buildings under construction, and then there are going to be times where we need to see how the market marinates.”
It may take time, but it’s also going to take leased apartments and commercial spaces. Birdsong believes “there’s tremendous momentum” right now in the rental market.
SoDo ATL has 11 commercial units on Broad Street for lease, only two of which are occupied. Six of 26 available residential units have been rented at 85 Peachtree St., the former Bass Dry Goods building, listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings, which cannot be torn down. Birdsong said the units have been actively marketed for less than a month online. The 85 Peachtree website offers in-person tours of available units.
There are 14 floor plans for studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom residences at the newly renovated 85 Peachtree. Studio apartments range from 640 to 654 square feet and cost between $1,825 to $1,950 per month. Two-bed, two-bath units range from 853 to 1,222 square feet and rent for $2,500 to $3,500 per month.
Compared to other in-town neighborhoods, rent at 85 Peachtree per square foot is less expensive than Midtown, but more expensive than neighboring Castleberry Hill.
“We’re not going to go build more housing if we can’t lease out the 26 [units] that we just spent $28 million creating,” Birdsong said.
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Strategies to market the neighborhood involve Central Atlanta Progress (CAP), a private, nonprofit organization that plans and promotes downtown Atlanta through events, newsletters and social media.
Stammel said the events calendar offering movie nights, neighborhood festivals and other special events on Founder’s Green in South Downtown is coming soon. Beyond the calendar of events planned, no other details were provided to Rough Draft on SoDo ATL and CAP’s marketing strategies for South Downtown going forward.
“The majority of Atlanta still hasn’t heard of South Downtown, and the majority of Atlanta still hasn’t been to South Downtown, and so it’s just going to take time,” Birdsong explained.
“It’s going to take programming… You don’t turn the light switch on and everybody comes. It takes real community embracing [the neighborhood] and it takes real time for people to experience it,” he continued.
Sarra Sedghi contributed to this report.
