2,000 downtown beds opening this week

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/a..._0807.html

Quote:

Huge dorm latest evidence of GSU's growth
Campus expansion is changing downtown as well as school itself

By ANDREA JONES
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 08/06/07

Standing in the courtyard of his university's massive student housing complex, Georgia State University President Carl Patton giddily ticks off a few facts.

Nearly 2,000 students will call University Commons home when it opens Friday, and many more are clamoring to get in. The $168 million mega-structure on Piedmont Avenue came in "early and under budget" and is, he says, the largest privately funded student housing project in the country.

It's just the latest coup for GSU, the urban university that has gobbled up downtown Atlanta.

In recent years, the school's campus has been a maze of building cranes and construction activity, all part of a decades long, two-tiered $1.5 billion campus expansion that is changing not only the school, but the city itself.

By 2015, Patton says, GSU plans to house 20 percent of its estimated student population of 36,000 on campus, a sea change for an institution founded in 1913 as a night commuter school for busy professionals.

Putting students on downtown streets, making GSU "a part of the community rather than apart from it" has been Patton's mantra for years.

It is a goal the urban planner put into play shortly after he arrived on campus in 1992, with the $14 million renovation of the Rialto Theatre, which for years had sat vacant and boarded up on the corner of Luckie and Forsyth streets.

In following years, GSU built a student center, a recreation center and a $45 million, four-story classroom building. The school moved its schools of business, music and public policy into the historical Fairlie-Poplar District.

Veteran Atlanta developer John Aderhold said the school is bringing downtown back.

Aderhold, a well known Georgia Tech booster, helped fund GSU's classroom building, a "Christmas, birthday and anniversary gift," for his wife, Helen, a GSU alumna.

"Now we have the right kind of folks downtown, replacing the wrong kind," he said, "It's nothing but good."

Last fall, the school broke ground on a $142 million science park on the corner of Decatur Street and Piedmont Avenue near Grady Memorial Hospital, a 3.2 acre site that will soon replace its red clay with a teaching laboratory and research laboratory.

The state kicked in $40 million for the park, one of the few upcoming projects that will use public funds, Patton said. The other $100 million was raised in private donations.

In addition to new construction, GSU has also has also been busy snapping up existing buildings downtown.

The school's private foundation bought the towering white 26-story SunTrust building on Park Place, overlooking Woodruff Park, last fall for $52 million and recently bought Citizens Trust Bank, adjacent to the new housing complex on Piedmont, this year.

The bank buildings will be used for desperately needed office space and the eastern portion of the SunTrust site will eventually be developed as a professional education center that will house Georgia State's colleges of law and business, Patton said.

Still, the bank building purchases could have some unintended consequences.

The buildings likely will eventually move off Fulton County's tax rolls, which could shift some of the burden of the expansion to taxpayers, said Burt Manning, the county's chief assessor.

Unlike private companies, state agencies don't have to pay property tax.

"When you start buying major buildings, it's a big deal," Manning said. "Most of the times, we are seeing them go from one company to another. When you get the state or the county or the Board of Regents involved, you lose that revenue stream."

But with a $135 billion tax digest, they won't make a huge dent in the city's tax base, he said.

Architect Ray Kimsey, president of Niles Bolton Associates, the firm that designed GSU's new dormitory, said the benefits of the construction far outweigh the tax trade-offs.

"The reality that the mission is so vital and the stability is so critical, the presence of Georgia State feeds the development," he said. "They are creating a vital downtown area."

For Patton, each construction project brings the university closer to his vision for the institution: becoming a place where people learn and live, instead of a campus of commuters.

As he walked down one of the long hallways at the Commons, where students will soon move into apartments any college kid would envy, he stopped and took a sniff.

"I can't help it, I just love that new building smell."

In 4 years those buildings will be trashed just like the other ones. Building more rooms doesnt solve Georgia State's problem...which is they are located in somewhat dangerous downtown area of a city with millions of people in it. They are in a tough situation...I actually feel kind of bad for them.

KennesawBasketball Wrote:In 4 years those buildings will be trashed just like the other ones. Building more rooms doesnt solve Georgia State's problem...which is they are located in somewhat dangerous downtown area of a city with millions of people in it. They are in a tough situation...I actually feel kind of bad for them.

Uh...okay.

No worse than the village at Kennesaw... Frosh dorms are going to get trashed. GSU has coped with being downtown just as well as Tech. They have their place, the cops patrol and everyone goes along their merry way. That's not to say crime doesn't happen because it does, but it's not the gloom and doom you're describing.

That perception about GSU is as big as our commuter school image. I believe the two are just about as real. There's a lot of cars still driving to Kennesaw's campus, but getting less and less if you can catch the metaphor.

Nick M Wrote:No worse than the village at Kennesaw... Frosh dorms are going to get trashed. GSU has coped with being downtown just as well as Tech. They have their place, the cops patrol and everyone goes along their merry way. That's not to say crime doesn't happen because it does, but it's not the gloom and doom you're describing.

That perception about GSU is as big as our commuter school image. I believe the two are just about as real. There's a lot of cars still driving to Kennesaw's campus, but getting less and less if you can catch the metaphor.

Oh they are definitely worse than the village at Kennesaw, because they are in a situation where it is practically unsafe. I have known G-State students who have lived in those dormitories and have sworn to never go back...they say it is that bad. That was a good analogy concerning KSU's commuter school image and GSU's dangerous location. The difference is that KSU has a fighting chance to correct its largest liability...I dont know if GSU does. There is no way to shrink Downtown Atlanta, and I dont know if there is a realistic way of lowering the crime rate in the GSU area. Georgia Tech is enclosed in its own island so to speak. GSU is wide open to the city.

I am not trying to put down GSU for the sake of making fun of them. I am just pointing out a real and present problem that they are dealing with. If they are able to overcome it then they will have a good chance of turning their university and athletic programs around.

Dorms for 5,000 more students plus HUGE redevelopment plans for the GSU campus and downtown are on the horizon. Since we can't "shrink downtown", we'll just build a new one.
The next ten years are going to interesting.
http://www.ajc.com/business/content/busi..._1213.html
http://projects.ajc.com/gallery/view/bus...1212gulch/

Bold park plan unveiled for downtown's 'gulch'
Linear park would link area of Philips Arena to GSU

By MARIA SAPORTA, KEVIN DUFFY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 12/12/07

An ambitious new vision for an oft-forgotten stretch of downtown would create a linear park ringed by pedestrian-friendly development, stretching from the state Capitol area to Philips Arena.

The conceptual plan, unveiled Wednesday by Central Atlanta Progress, envisions massive commercial development near Philips and CNN Center on the west end of the 94-acre site, an overhaul of the Five Points MARTA station in the middle and new Georgia State student housing on the east, all connected by green space and walkways.

But it is only a concept — and one that would require actions by a host of public and private entities to become reality. And it's not the first concept. Some elements, such as a multimodal transportation hub for commuter trains and buses, have long been on planners' drawing boards without materializing.

Highlights of the so-called "Green Line" concept, presented to CAP's board Wednesday, include:

• MARTA's headquarters moving next to its hub station at Five Points

• Removing the above-ground structure of the Five Points station and replacing it with a plaza

• Building 5,000 housing units just north of Underground Atlanta for Georgia State students

• Developing the multimodal station next to a new MARTA headquarters building as a connecting point for commuter trains and regional and intercity buses

• Creating a new street grid over the area now known as "the railroad gulch" that would carve out a dozen sites for office and retail space near CNN Center and Centennial Olympic Park

• Redeveloping the street-level portion of Underground Atlanta to add larger buildings that would mix office and retail uses.

• Connecting the entire corridor with 15 acres of green space and public plazas.

CAP, an association of downtown businesses, has long fretted over the area covered by the plan. It currently includes a jumble of elevated roads, train tracks and parking lots in the gulch on the west end; the current MARTA Five Points station that many feel has become a blight; Underground Atlanta; and the vacated original World of Coke attraction.

The group hopes the new concept can spur the type of green belt development that's worked around Centennial Olympic Park and triggered redevelopment plans along the Beltline, a 22-mile freight rail corridor that someday might be a loop of parks, trails and transit.

"Most of the property in this corridor is controlled by public entities," said A.J. Robinson, CAP's president. "If everyone can share the same vision, perhaps collectively we can get something done."

Stakeholders in the plan voice general support, but it's not clear if, when or how that will translate into action.

MARTA could play a crucial role in kick-starting the plan. The MARTA board already has discussed selling its Lindbergh headquarters and locating the agency at the nexus of both the North-South and East-West lines. The Green Line plan envisions a MARTA building on the site of a long-vacant property that once housed The Atlanta Constitution.

Beverly Scott, MARTA's new general manager, told the CAP board Wednesday that she plans to establish an office at the Five Points station soon.

"Five Points is our front door," said Scott, who wants the station cleaned up. "I'm not going to ask my customers to experience anything that I'm not ready to experience."

Scott said she supports moving MARTA's headquarters to Five Points and participating in development of a multimodal station.

"I love all of the big ideas," she said. "We have an opportunity to be part of something that would not just be good for MARTA, but for the city and the entire region."

It remains to be seen, however, if her enthusiasm translates into action by the transit agency.

GSU President Carl Patton said the university needs to build 500 units of student housing each year for 10 years. He said he supports a complex along the Green Line as long as GSU is not the only player transforming the area.

Dan O'Leary, the manager of Underground, the entertainment and retail complex in the middle of the Green Line area, said "the idea of connecting the whole east-west corridor is a good idea."

But its success, he said, will depend on how the overall plan jibes with each stakeholder's individual development plans.

"What's good for downtown is good for Underground," O'Leary said. "But we do also have to look at our property's specific needs."

Underground, for example, is considering several development scenarios. They include expanding the entertainment component and building residences as part of future mixed-use development.

"More and more housing needs retail," O'Leary said.

Greg Giornelli, the city of Atlanta's chief operating officer, said the city "stands ready to partner" with others to make the plan a reality. Specifically, Giornelli said the city "would wholeheartedly support" MARTA if it decides to move its headquarters downtown.

"The potential for another 5,000 GSU students living downtown is an incredible opportunity," he said, "and is probably the single most significant event that could change the daily character of downtown into a vibrant, active center."

Norfolk Southern owns the railroad gulch. The plan calls for filling it in with new streets and viaducts in much the way Atlantic Station has been built. But exactly how, and by whom, that would be done isn't spelled out.

C. Van Baker, Norfolk Southern's assistant vice president for real estate, declined to talk specifically about the property. But he said he was briefed on the Green Line concept and was "most impressed" because it "utilizes properties and venues ... mostly public that are now underutilized."

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution owns property adjacent to the gulch area. The AJC plans to shut down its printing operation on the site by the end of next year, but it has not yet decided what to do with that space.

As for the Green Line, Charles Parker, the newspaper's vice president for legal affairs, said "anything that would enhance the energy and vibrancy of downtown we would support, as long as it's in a manner that is consistent with community interests."

CAP paid HOK about $100,000 to develop the Green Line plan.

Tom Bell, CEO of Cousins Properties and chairman of CAP's board, said the Green Line vision should be seen as a 10-year effort.

"The whole purpose of this is to get something to happen," said Bell, who cited a "developing need" for more urban projects. "This is a place to start the conversation, and it is a conversation we need to have."

Georgia State is doing the right things. I hope that it works out for them. You can see the kind of money it is taking to put together some of these projects. If they can survive doling out that kind of cash on a consistent basis then they might have a fighting chance. The problem is that 5-10 years from now they will need that same kind of funding to revamp the project -and then more money to build more ... it is a never ending cycle, and it is BIG MONEY.

Georgia State has definitely made HUGE improvements to their infrastructure though over the past 1-2 years. Short of KSU becoming a dominant southern state school there is no other school I would rather see improve more than Ga State.

Imagine if one day you had 3 Major State schools in Georgia and one power private school. You could even through Georgia Southern into the mix, although with their location I think that they have a lower ceiling than either Ga State or Kennesaw.

It's good to see ga state doing some things down there to improve the campus. I think for a lot of us we had to make a decision about where to go to college between ksu and gsu so i'm happy to see them doing well. Although, I do see ga state as competition with ksu in a variety of different ways including academics, athletics etc. They seem to be further along the path towards football than ksu is and they have been attempting to improve the look of their campus in a variety of ways.

Obviously, gsu offers more academic programs than ksu does but really their admission standards are very similar between the two schools. I think the two schools will become somewhat competitive in the future in terms of who attracts more of the 3.0-3.7 gpa high school students who could not get into uga. As for right now, i think most 18 year old kids feel more comfortbale at ksu for a variety of reasons, but ga state is clearly attempting to change that. These new dorms are a step in that direction, but it is still a campus environment that many 18 year old kids will not be satisfied with in my opinion.

It will certainly be interesting to see in the future which school becomes the school of choice in the general area as both schools have different things going for them.