Residents, Partners, Casey Foundation Celebrate Groundbreaking for Atlanta's Pittsburgh Yards

Res­i­dents and devel­op­ment part­ners reached a much-antic­i­pat­ed mile­stone today with the ground­break­ing cel­e­bra­tion for Pitts­burgh Yards™, a unique mixed-use project express­ly aimed at improv­ing the lives of peo­ple in Atlanta’s Pitts­burgh neigh­bor­hood and the sur­round­ing South­side com­mu­ni­ties. The project is meant to be not only a com­mer­cial, recre­ation­al and com­mu­ni­ty anchor, with liv­ing-wage jobs, but also a cat­a­lyst for broad, pos­i­tive change for every­one who lives in the area.

The 31-acre site at 352 Uni­ver­si­ty Avenue SW forms the south­ern bor­der of Pitts­burgh and backs to an as-yet-unde­vel­oped seg­ment of Atlanta’s Belt­Line. The name Pitts­burgh Yards was select­ed with com­mu­ni­ty input.

Saturday’s ground­break­ing cer­e­monies brought neigh­bor­hood res­i­dents — many of whom are help­ing to plan Pitts­burgh Yards through com­mu­ni­ty meet­ings — togeth­er with lead­ers from the Colum­bia Core Part­ners devel­op­ment team and the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, the non­prof­it phil­an­thropy that owns the par­cel and has invest­ed toward ensur­ing the devel­op­ment ben­e­fits the community.

The $26 mil­lion first phase of devel­op­ment will hap­pen on the east­ern side of the prop­er­ty around an exist­ing 61,000 square foot struc­ture that will cre­ate work spaces at acces­si­ble rental rates for approx­i­mate­ly 100 busi­ness­es, includ­ing light-indus­tri­al, admin­is­tra­tive, arti­sanal, mak­er and cre­ative enter­pris­es. A large, nat­ur­al-turf green space will be cre­at­ed, along with a busi­ness-cen­tric area that fea­tures repur­posed ship­ping con­tain­ers that will be used as work spaces and store­fronts. The first phase will also include nec­es­sary road, sew­er, storm-water man­age­ment, land­scap­ing and pedes­tri­an-ori­ent­ed infra­struc­ture — includ­ing a spur to the Atlanta Belt­Line — as well as three adapt­able pad-ready sites.

The time is right to move for­ward, accord­ing to Dil­lon Baynes of Colum­bia Ven­tures, which along with the Core Ven­ture Stu­dio has formed Colum­bia Core Part­ners (CCP) to devel­op the prop­er­ty. ​“With its loca­tion on the Belt­line, right off the Down­town Con­nec­tor and not far from major attrac­tions and the air­port, we know it will boost the econ­o­my in Pitts­burgh and the sur­round­ing neigh­bor­hoods. There are tal­ent­ed entre­pre­neurs and peo­ple ready to work hard for fair wages in these neigh­bor­hoods, and they will have those oppor­tu­ni­ties here.”

“As Pitts­burgh res­i­dents, we have con­sis­tent­ly been invit­ed to con­tribute our ideas, opin­ions and knowl­edge of the com­mu­ni­ty to the devel­op­ment of Pitts­burgh Yards,” said Dantes Rameau, who lives in Pitts­burgh and is one of many neigh­bors who have attend­ed meet­ings to help shape the project. ​“It’s excit­ing that this is hap­pen­ing in our neigh­bor­hood and I look for­ward to the many ben­e­fits it will bring to Pitts­burgh and Pitts­burgh residents.”

Com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers are encour­aged to attend Pitts­burgh Yards engage­ment ses­sions, which are typ­i­cal­ly held on the sec­ond Thurs­day evening of each month. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it pitts​burgh​yards​.com or call 404−862−5858.

“That fact that we are co-cre­at­ing Pitts­burgh Yards with peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ty makes it some­thing much more than an ordi­nary urban rede­vel­op­ment project,” said Ryan Chao, vice pres­i­dent for Civic Sites and Com­mu­ni­ty Change at the Casey Foundation.

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion is a nation­al phil­an­thropy; Atlanta is one of two civic sites, along with Bal­ti­more, where the Foun­da­tion has a spe­cial con­nec­tion and long-term com­mit­ment to child and fam­i­ly well-being. The Casey Foun­da­tion pur­chased the Pitts­burgh Yards prop­er­ty from UPS in 2006 and short­ly there­after began envi­ron­men­tal and oth­er cleanup of the site. The Great Reces­sion stalled devel­op­ment across Atlanta, but the plan­ning process in Pitts­burgh has gained new momen­tum over the past sev­er­al years.

“Atlanta’s eco­nom­ic land­scape is chang­ing with more major devel­op­ment ini­tia­tives break­ing ground south of Inter­state 20,” said Eloisa Kle­men­tich, pres­i­dent and CEO of Invest Atlanta, the City of Atlanta’s eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment author­i­ty. ​“Pitts­burgh Yards will cre­ate a range of employ­ment and entre­pre­neur­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties that will help bring new, sus­tain­able growth and near­ly $40 mil­lion in eco­nom­ic impact to the area. We are very pleased to sup­port this impor­tant project through our New Mar­kets Tax Cred­it program.”

The site, which was used for agri­cul­tur­al train­ing by Clark Col­lege before it was devel­oped for indus­tri­al use, ​“has always been about jobs,” added James Har­ris of the Core Ven­ture Stu­dio, ​“and it’s time for this prop­er­ty to be about jobs again. We expect Pitts­burgh Yards to dri­ve the cre­ation of a range of employ­ment and entre­pre­neur­ship opportunities.”

Spe­cif­ic eco­nom­ic inclu­sion goals have been estab­lished by the Casey Foun­da­tion and CCP:

• At least 50% of new hires for phase I con­struc­tion will be local residents.
• At least 30% of the con­tract­ed con­struc­tion val­ues will go to local, minor­i­ty- and/​or women-owned businesses.
• At least 30% of con­tract­ed pre­de­vel­op­ment ser­vices will go to local‑, minor­i­ty- and/​or women-owned busi­ness­es. (This goal has already been exceeded.)
• At least 50% of the new per­ma­nent entry- and mid-lev­el jobs will be focused on local residents.

To dis­cuss invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties, con­tact Natal­lie Keis­er (678−686−0151 or nkeiser@​aecf.​org). To dis­cuss con­tract­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, con­tact Ryan Akin (rakin@​columbiaven.​com). For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it pitts​burgh​yards​.com.

While CCP is lead­ing the devel­op­ment, the Pitts­burgh Yards team also includes Stevens & Wilkin­son (archi­tec­ture, struc­ture, mechan­i­cal, elec­tri­cal and plumb­ing), Long Engi­neer­ing (civ­il engi­neer­ing), Syl­vat­i­ca Stu­dio (land­scape archi­tec­ture), Rejuve (ship­ping con­tain­er design/​build), Grafite (inte­ri­ors), South­face Ener­gy Insti­tute (sus­tain­abil­i­ty con­sult­ing) and C.D. Moody Con­struc­tion (gen­er­al con­tract­ing). The Casey Foun­da­tion has also engaged local work­force and busi­ness-devel­op­ment part­ners includ­ing Atlanta Career­Rise (Unit­ed Way of Greater Atlanta), the Cen­ter for Work­ing Fam­i­lies, Inc., the Con­struc­tion Edu­ca­tion Foun­da­tion of Geor­gia, Emmaus House, Access to Cap­i­tal for Entre­pre­neurs and the Atlanta Vil­lage Micro Fund.

The first phase of devel­op­ment at Pitts­burgh Yards achieved a finan­cial clos­ing of a New Mar­kets Tax Cred­it deal at the end of 2017 that includ­ed fund­ing part­ners Invest Atlanta, Enter­prise Com­mu­ni­ty Part­ners, Brown­field CDE and US Bank.

About the Annie E. Casey Foundation

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion cre­ates a brighter future for the nation’s chil­dren by devel­op­ing solu­tions to strength­en fam­i­lies, build paths to eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty and trans­form strug­gling com­mu­ni­ties into safer and health­i­er places to live, work and grow. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.aecf​.org.

About Colum­bia Ventures

Found­ed in 2013, Colum­bia Ven­tures is an Atlanta-based real estate devel­op­ment and invest­ment com­pa­ny focused on urban mixed-use cam­pus devel­op­ment in the Southeast.

Colum­bia Ven­tures often oper­ates in pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ships and is the sis­ter com­pa­ny to Colum­bia Res­i­den­tial, the award-win­ning devel­op­er of afford­able and mixed-income hous­ing that was found­ed in 1991 by Noël F. Khalil. The company’s founders have exten­sive region­al and nation­al expe­ri­ence and have devel­oped more than $2 bil­lion of com­mer­cial real estate.

About the Core Ven­ture Stu­dio (by Core)

Found­ed in 2014, the Core Ven­ture Stu­dio is an Atlanta-based ven­ture cap­i­tal and real estate devel­op­ment firm focused on entre­pre­neuri­al­ly sup­port­ive real estate devel­op­ment. Core Venture’s part­ners are ear­ly investors in King Plow, Glen­wood Park, Serenbe and down­town Atlanta. The firm’s most promi­nent ven­ture has been the rede­vel­op­ment of Atlanta’s first start­up space, Hype­pota­mus, into Col­lid­er in Midtown.