A year into the pandemic, metro Atlantaâs real-estate and development industry is...
A year into the pandemic, metro Atlantaâs real-estate and development industry is damaged, uneven, relatively strong, and absolutely killing it
Yeah, strange times.
Photograph by Ben Rollins
Itâs a sunny afternoon on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Atlanta, and a walk through the Westside is a study in contrasts, a microcosm of a restless city caught between light and dark.
Howell Mill Road teems with construction workers in bright yellow vests finishing major projectsâStar Metals (both residences and offices), plus the initial facets of a new mixed-use development, the Interlockâtogether worth well over half a billion dollars. But just two blocks away, the carcass of longstanding social hub Octane Coffee is neighbored by vacant retail spaces that used to be 5 Seasons Brewing and Hop City. Along the Marietta Street corridor, âComing Soonâ signs for the likes of upscale market Savi Provisions are outnumbered by âFor Leaseâ placards and the papered-over windows of former dining rooms. Deeper into downtown, in the shadow of new luxury apartments for college students and the forthcoming Margaritaville resort, volunteers operate a makeshift soup kitchen on folding tables for men living in a parking lotâs new tent encampment. Itâs all a snapshot of Atlantaâs disparate Covid-19 recovery, a juxtaposition of post-lockdown winners and losers in a city known for both civil rights and glaring economic disparity.