Cannibalizing other entertainment districts

ATLMidcity · #1 Posted **Jun 24, 2024, 2:17 PM**

We've all heard and seen the reports or proposals for other entertainment districts popping up in close proximity to Centennial Yards' entertainment district.
So, the question is will there be a negative effect on other entertainment districts?
Or, can the downtown absorb these new development without negatively impact established or budding retail/restaurant areas?

Let's have a rousing discussion. :cheers

you can CHOOSE more than 1.

Username123 · #2 Posted **Jun 24, 2024, 2:31 PM**

Unless development plans start looking better, I think it’s likely that the hopes of downtown becoming a neighborhood where people want to live fade away and at some point at least some of these developments falter just like the old Underground did. Downtown has more than enough massive venues, stadia, and “museums” imo, and I’d like to see some of these entertainment options spread around.

(I know some people want to live there but it’s not somewhere that most Atlantans would recommend to live in or even visit, aside from attending an event, if we’re being honest)

When I started reading this sub in 2012, the MMPT was supposed to start construction in 2014 and finish in 2017. Then we had such high hopes for the planned developments at Underground, South Downtown, and the Gulch. There are still some developments happening, but the quality has changed dramatically and although at one point I thought I’d love to live downtown someday, I don’t even visit the neighborhood as much as I used to.

TLDR: i don’t think downtown can add all this entertainment space without hurting the neighborhoods future. I don’t believe it will hurt places like pcm because pcm is actually in an area that people want to visit. Downtown might continue to improve compared to its old self but I had higher hopes for the neighborhood a decade ago, its trajectory is not looking as good as it was.

jayden · #3 Posted **Jun 24, 2024, 3:05 PM**

Does interest in Underground even exist now?

testarossa50 · #4 Posted **Jun 24, 2024, 3:28 PM**

I think a decent outcome is a modest entertainment district and "wait and see" on the mass residential, with a master plan to allow very high density like Atlantic Station once the timing is right.

bryantm3 · #5 Posted **Jun 24, 2024, 5:21 PM**

South Downtown still has great bones. Expanding the Centennial Olympic Park area "entertainment district" further south, I have to be honest, I don't know what kind of impact that will have. It might spur more interest in south downtown or it might make the neighborhood too loud for anyone to live in.

But it may be that the two new buldings can serve as a sound shield from the stadium. I'm not so negative on this in a normal environment, but then again the situation right now, politically and economically, is not so normal.

Martinman · #6 Posted **Jun 24, 2024, 9:24 PM**

I don't really consider any of those to be entertainment districts. The successful ones have highly mixed uses - office, residential, retail - with an entertainment component. The new plan for Centennial Yards seems to have entertainment as the primary draw and that is what is making some of us a little nervous.

Sojourner_Terminus · #7 Posted **Jun 25, 2024, 7:34 PM**

Thinking about the entertainment district lately. There is already going to be a Hotel, a two story retail building, a single tenant entertainment building that i believe is some kind of spherical screen experience, and then a music venue. All this across the street from State Farm arena and MBS which accommodate sports and large arena performances. Now that we know that there is going to be a second phase of the entertainment district, I have been wracking my brain trying to figure out what else could go there, besides for hotels. The obvious options are movie theater and bowling/in-door games type establishments. But one that just came to me in light of other recent news is a Casino.

I am not hot for casinos, as I think its a net drag on society and a tax on lower income people (If not the individual making the decision to gamble, then their family and children who must deal with the economic/addiction consequences) . But the fact remains that a casino could be exactly what CY is looking for to fill in this space and create a destination.

I hope I'm wrong.

SAV · #8 Posted **Jun 25, 2024, 10:20 PM**

idk....call me optimistic but i think things will be ok. All these sections of downtown are gonna open up at different times and build off of each other. By time they open they'll have even more hotels and residential units down there. There's always stuff going on down there (games, concerts, conferences, festivals,). There already thousands of hotels rooms and students down there. I think it'll be fine and I think the other districts will be fine too. It's gonna be Like times square. Hated by locals but loved by tourist. The locals in ATL will continue to support the other neighborhoods. Everything will be fine.

I also think that once those 2 towers open, momentum for residential development will pick up.

SAV · #9 Posted **Jun 25, 2024, 10:47 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sojourner_Terminus

Thinking about the entertainment district lately. There is already going to be a Hotel, a two story retail building, a single tenant entertainment building that i believe is some kind of spherical screen experience, and then a music venue. All this across the street from State Farm arena and MBS which accommodate sports and large arena performances. Now that we know that there is going to be a second phase of the entertainment district, I have been wracking my brain trying to figure out what else could go there, besides for hotels. The obvious options are movie theater and bowling/in-door games type establishments. But one that just came to me in light of other recent news is a Casino.

I am not hot for casinos, as I think its a net drag on society and a tax on lower income people (If not the individual making the decision to gamble, then their family and children who must deal with the economic/addiction consequences) . But the fact remains that a casino could be exactly what CY is looking for to fill in this space and create a destination.

I hope I'm wrong.

Maybe a museum

MarketsWork · #10 Posted **Jun 25, 2024, 11:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sojourner_Terminus

...a casino could be exactly what CY is looking for to fill in this space and create a destination. I hope I'm wrong.

I hope you're wrong, too. And for the reasons you stated.

AtlHeel · #11 Posted **Jun 26, 2024, 12:18 AM**

Hasn't some group recently proposed a science museum for the centennial park area? I'd love to see them pursue something in the gulch.

Sojourner_Terminus · #12 Posted **Jun 26, 2024, 4:34 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SAV

Maybe a museum

I'd love a high quality museum, but I think that's the kind of thing that needs big philanthropic backing. All the best museums aren't exactly money printers, but they can be huge cultural asset.

mackiejamieson · #13 Posted **Jun 26, 2024, 7:45 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Username123

Downtown has more than enough massive venues, stadia, and “museums” imo, and I’d like to see some of these entertainment options spread around.

(I know some people want to live there but it’s not somewhere that most Atlantans would recommend to live in or even visit, aside from attending an event, if we’re being honest)

As one of those wants to live in downtown (and does) - I think the entertainment districts will help both south downtown and underground; the entertainment districts in GWCC and Centennial Yards will draw in people from out of town and in town for events... but those same audiences + local residents will wander over to underground and south downtown for ammenities on a smaller, more local scale.