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Experts make recommendations on future of Underground
By Collin Kelley
After purchasing Underground Atlanta for $31.6 million last November, the Downtown
property’s new owner is considering multifamily residential options, more retail and restaurants,
and reactivating outdoor spaces.
Those are some of the recommendations that came out of a recent three-day design charrette
with some of Atlanta’s leading urban planners, architects, engineers and placemaking experts.
The team, which was assembled by owner Shaneel Lalani, CEO of Billionaires Funding Group
(BFG), and FFGOR, an Adanta-based urban design, placemaking and landscape architecture firm,
envisioned the first drafts of a master plan for the storied district. To follow the charrette, Lalani said
the team would soon seek community feedback to help inform the final master plan.
“Our hope with the redevelopment of Underground Adanta is to create the right environment
for the city and a gathering
place for Atlantans of all
ages to utilize,” said Lalani.
“We commissioned the
design charrette as first
step in creating a uniquely
activated entertainment
district that will restore
the sense of wonderment
and excitement around
Underground Atlanta.
We look forward to the
opportunity to speak with
the community to hear
their thoughts on what
uses will best serve the
needs of the surrounding
neighborhoods and the
city to allow us to create
an informed plan for this
project.”
At the design charrette,
the experts split into three teams each focusing on different elements of the project. Following
Lalani’s vision of a multi-phased redevelopment, the team presented a first draft of a master
plan that addresses the rehabilitation of existing historic buildings and structures; incorporates
viable residential options; creates engaging retail and entertainment concepts at both the street
level and the underground mall around Kenny’s Alley; adds programmable indoor and outdoor
public spaces and rehabs existing public areas,
and includes plans for vertical growth with
the addition of taller buildings for a variety of
potential uses.
The team also indicated a need for immediate
onsite activation and programming to draw people
back to Underground. BFG said there would be
continuing conversations with neighborhood
stakeholders to ensure the redevelopment
considers the identity, insight and needs of
Downtown.
“Underground Atlanta will always have a
place in Atlanta’s history as well as the feeling of
nostalgia among the many who visited the district
over the years,” said AJ. Robinson, president of
Central Atlanta Progress (CAP). “To ensure the
success of Underground’s next phase, we must
revive its sense of relevance. I was inspired by the
conversations and initial plans that were presented
at the charrette, and the team’s understanding
of what is needed to create a great place within
our Downtown community. I am impressed with Shaneel and his team’s vision to reestablish
Underground Atlanta’s importance in our city’s future.”
In addition to the design charrette, BFG hired a leasing director with significant urban
retail leasing experience, India Turkell, who will focus on retail and restaurant leasing for the
400,000-square-foot district.
Lalani purchased Underground from South Carolina-based developer WRS, which had
purchased the bought the property from the city in 2017 for $34.6 million and had planned to
redevelop the 12-acre site into a live-work-shop community. WRS had announced several projects
— including a hotel, an LGBTQ+ nightclub/restaurants, and apartments — but said the pandemic
had caused a delay in construction.
Lalani also purchased the nearby One Park Tower, a 300,000-square-foot office building
located at 34 Peachtree Street in Downtown, for $12.75 million, earlier this year.
Lalani’s planned redevelopment is another chapter in Underground’s storied history.
The retail and entertainment district, which became best known for hosting the annual Peach
Drop on New Year’s Eve and as the home of The Masquerade music venue, was created after the
Civil War as bridges and viaducts were built over Downtown’s railroad tracks. The section of the
city, containing about 12-acres, was eventually covered and forgotten as the street level was raised
one-and-a-half stories by the end of the 1920s.
Underground was rediscovered in the 1960s and the original store fronts, brick streets and gas
lamps were renovated and turned into a restaurant and nightclub district in 1969, including the
original Dante’s Down the FFatch. The heyday was short-lived and Underground became home to
vagrants until the late 80s, when it was resurrected again in 1989.
The second heyday didn’t last long either as the upscale retailers and restaurants fled and were
replaced by small shops, chain stores and fast-food restaurants. QD
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