Pittsburgh Yards, a mixed-use project “expressly aimed at improving the lives of people in Atlanta’s Pittsburgh neighborhood and the surrounding Southside communities,” is set to break ground March 10, according to a press release Saturday.
The Atlanta Business Chronicle earlier this week first reported the groundbreaking plans.
“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,” according to the press release.
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.
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 workspaces 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 workspaces 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.
Columbia Ventures 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,” Dillon Baynes of Columbia Ventures, said in the release.
“There are talented entrepreneurs and people ready to work hard for fair wages in these neighborhoods, and they will have those opportunities here.”
The site, which was used for agricultural training by Clark College before it was developed for industrial use.
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.
