My Thoughs On Downtown (Atlanta, Marietta: apartment, lofts, condos)

[cdcdguy]

Just spent 5 days downtown while wife at a conference. Since I had nothing to do I spent hours walking around. More positives than negatives.

Main negative. The downtown has very little retail shopping for such a big city. There is the mall at Peachtree , but just a few shops and mostly fast food places to eat.

Positives... MARTA is very easy to use. Even getting from the airport was simple. It's also cleaner than other major city rail.

High police presence. During the day I felt very safe, and around the Hotel at night, which was Marriot Marquis, felt comfortable too.

Plenty of great places to eat dinner. Wish we could have tried more!

Centennial park is pretty nice. We were going to go to the aquarium, but felt 40 dollars per ticket was high, especially since we wanted to just walk through in an hour.

I have traveled all over the world, and for a big city, downtown Atlanta is CLEAN.

So did I just miss the shops, book stores, antiques, high end clothing downtown or us it just not there?

Overall enjoyed my time exploring. The city is diverse and people friendly.

[jsvh]

Great feedback! Thanks!

Unfortunately the retail in downtown is currently lacking. There isn't even one grocery store. There are some projects in the works that will hopefully bring more shopping to downtown. Mainly the Underground Atlanta redevelopment. But it is a shame how far it has fallen. Downtown used to be the commercial core where all the department stores were. Rich's was founded there and had their flagship store right next to Five Points until the early 1990s.

[goillini8]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Great feedback! Thanks!

Unfortunately the retail in downtown is currently lacking. There isn't even one grocery store. There are some projects in the works that will hopefully bring more shopping to downtown. Mainly the Underground Atlanta redevelopment. But it is a shame how far it has fallen. Downtown used to be the commercial core where all the department stores were. Rich's was founded there and had their flagship store right next to Five Points until the early 1990s.

It's not just Atlanta - downtown in many metros isn't the shopping destination it used to be due to any number of factors - more internet shopping, the spreading out of the population over a greater area and the proliferation of more business/entertainment/shopping hubs (business parks, malls, lifestyle centers, etc.) The downtown Macy's in Minneapolis (which started as Minnesota's flagship Dayton's department store) recently closed; something I never thought would happen when I was growing up in Minnesota.

[lorilove]

If you get a chance to come back definitely look at City Pass for Downtown Attractions


Official Atlanta CityPASS® | Visit 5 Atlanta Attractions for $75


They are getting ready to Refresh Centennial Olympic Park


Centennial Olympic Park moves forward with $25 million refresh


High end clothing shopping is found in Buckhead at either Buckhead Atlanta or Lenox/Phipps (accessible via Marta).


If you did not get a chance - I would recommend taking Marta up to Midtown (just a couple of exits north) and checking out that area including Piedmont Park, Ponce City Market, the Beltline etc.

[AtlantaIsHot]

It's good that you enjoyed downtown Atlanta. Too many are overly critical IMO. Atlanta has had some unfortunate trends to deal with. Like most US cities, in the mid-20th century suburbanization took hold and the city population dropped. Coupled with that, freeway construction disrupted the central neighborhoods and drove many of the higher income people to live and shop elsewhere. Also during this period, shopping malls opened within the city limits (Lenox, Phipps) and the retail followed to the higher income area of Buckhead. Downtown Atlanta suffered the most as the shoppers and population dwindled. Despite continued major corporate, hotel, university, and convention center construction, Atlanta has struggled to attract many people to live downtown. There were some successes however, such as Muse's lofts, Healey Lofts, Metropolitan condos, 123 Luckie condos, Landmark condos, Twelve Centennial residences, W residences, Museum Tower residences, and The Office apartment tower conversion. Fortunately things seem to be getting a lot better. Investment is returning. The Olympics spurred the Olympic Park, which has seen new attractions built nearby. Major new upgrades to historic buildings has been done recently, such as the Flatiron, Equitable, Candler, etc. Also, there actually IS retail downtown. There are clothing stores, shoe stores, restaurants, dry cleaners, drugstores, and the Mall at Peachtree Center. Walgreens just invested heavily in a historic downtown building that turned out well. The most charming area's of downtown in terms of pedestrian activity and sidewalk eating, etc. are Marietta Street, Broad Street, and the Fairlie-Poplar area. None of these things above were/are unique to Atlanta, but one thing does stand out. Unlike most major cities of the north, Atlanta (and most other southern cities) actually have huge malls within their city limits. Large scale retail fled for Buckhead's malls years ago. Buckhead's position as the retail capital of the area will not be dislodged anytime soon. Fortunately, Downtown doesn't need Macy's and Saks to thrive. What it needs is food stores, bike shops, cafe's, some nightlife, and above all-more people.

[cdcdguy]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Great feedback! Thanks!

Unfortunately the retail in downtown is currently lacking. There isn't even one grocery store. There are some projects in the works that will hopefully bring more shopping to downtown. Mainly the Underground Atlanta redevelopment. But it is a shame how far it has fallen. Downtown used to be the commercial core where all the department stores were. Rich's was founded there and had their flagship store right next to Five Points until the early 1990s.

Everyone told me that the underground mall was dead, so I never bothered to go there. There was one upscale men's store at Peachtree, a ladies shoe store and a place to buy watches and a place to buy sports clothing, which I did. I walked from The Marriot Marquis down Baker to the Coke museum, across the park and up, then down to Georgia State then back to the hotel. Now I may have missed a few things, but really saw no other shopping. LOTS of interesting places to eat. Many hotels and banks.

Again, I really enjoyed downtown Atlanta. I just think more retail would have made the area more complete.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by cdcdguy

Everyone told me that the underground mall was dead, so I never bothered to go there.

They were correct. However come back in a couple years and see how it is doing. The developer just closed on the property a few days ago and the plans look promising.

[the topper]

Originally Posted by jsvh

They were correct. However come back in a couple years and see how it is doing. The developer just closed on the property a few days ago and the plans look promising.

Good luck revitalizing the downtown core since all cities have done so