Revitalizing Neighborhoods: Atlanta's Glenwood Park

[Metro Jacksonville]

Revitalizing Neighborhoods: Atlanta's Glenwood Park



Glenwood Park is an award-winning, 28-acre, mixed-use brownfield redevelopment, two miles southeast of downtown Atlanta.  The neighborhood is noted for its commitment to traditional neighborhood design, walkability, mix of uses, and environmental management practices.


Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2012-may-revitalizing-neighborhoods-atlantas-glenwood-park

[tufsu1]

I have visited here a few times...quite possibly my favorite new urbanist development

[jcjohnpaint]

very very impressive.  Glad someone is building neighborhoods to last.

[Jason]

That place looks fantastic!  Just imagine if something like that was built along the MARTA line...

[mtraininjax]

Eh - Not as special to me as Virginia-Highlands or Morningside.

[tufsu1]

^ sure but those aren't brand new, master planned neighborhoods either.....let's reexamine Glenwood Park in 50 years and see how it stacks up

[simms3]

Glenwood Park is actually only about a mile from the Inman Park MARTA station (though it's not highly accessible and too far still).  I actually work for the firm that developed this project in partnership with another prestigious local developer/financier (Jamestown bought Green Street in 2008, and the partnership included a man who heads one of the largest development firms in the SE) and this was the key development that turned me onto the firm (glad I made it in!!).

The "2011" aerial is actually a couple years old.  There are a surprising amount of similar developments in the city, though Glenwood Park is one of the few that got a substantial amount of press.  It's mostly self-sustaining now.

What I say is if Atlanta can develop into a large urban city with only 2 lane roads serving 20 lane highways and no grid, built around ravines and hills, then Jacksonville should EASILY be able to with its large grid and flat land.  You would not need large developers to build Glenwood Parks in Jacksonville because you should be able to tweak the zoning codes and land use codes to enforce similar development from a grass roots piece by piece process.  The whole city could essentially look similar, all done on a 1-4 unit basis rather than larger projects all at once.  Atlanta needs the larger developments, tied together by corridors due to its topography and the way it is laid out, but Jacksonville could be uniformly similar.

[simms3]

I forgot to mention that Green Street Properties co-founder Charles Brewer is also the founder of Mindspring, which merged with Atlanta-based Earthlink later on.  Charles is no longer with the company (Katherine Kelly, the other co-founder, is and remains a director at Jamestown as well).  Charles is still active with Midtown Alliance and other local organizations, and is one of many many similar smart, wealthy entrepreneurs.  Jacksonville needs its own to step up and become more active.

[billy]

Wasn't Mr. Brewer doing some work in Costa Rica?

[jcjohnpaint]

Glenwood Park is actually only about a mile from the Inman Park MARTA station (though it's not highly accessible and too far still).  I actually work for the firm that developed this project in partnership with another prestigious local developer/financier (Jamestown bought Green Street in 2008, and the partnership included a man who heads one of the largest development firms in the SE) and this was the key development that turned me onto the firm (glad I made it in!!).

The "2011" aerial is actually a couple years old.  There are a surprising amount of similar developments in the city, though Glenwood Park is one of the few that got a substantial amount of press.  It's mostly self-sustaining now.

What I say is if Atlanta can develop into a large urban city with only 2 lane roads serving 20 lane highways and no grid, built around ravines and hills, then Jacksonville should EASILY be able to with its large grid and flat land.  You would not need large developers to build Glenwood Parks in Jacksonville because you should be able to tweak the zoning codes and land use codes to enforce similar development from a grass roots piece by piece process.  The whole city could essentially look similar, all done on a 1-4 unit basis rather than larger projects all at once.  Atlanta needs the larger developments, tied together by corridors due to its topography and the way it is laid out, but Jacksonville could be uniformly similar.

Yeah I agree.  It goes to show it is mostly about leadership.  You can have the most fertile ground and still not choose to grow on it.  I just hope we see it before I'm old and grey. 

[mtraininjax]

Jacksonville needs its own to step up and become more active.

The way Arthur Blank is whining about a new stadium? HOK estimated the new stadium would cost 1 billion there in Atlanta when the existing is not that old for stadium standards and is still in very good condition. To achieve the 1 billion cost, the latest idea is to add a surcharge for every ticket sold to a facility in Atlanta, a facility fee to help pay for the cost to maintain a facility, even if that facility is an outdoor park. So this facility fund grows and grows and is used for maintenance, right, who is to say the fund is not used for Peter who robbed Paul and another city need?

Why can't Blank put down his own money for a new stadium? Is Home Depot really in that bad of shape?

[finehoe]

During the real estate boom, Novare had looked into developing a similar project in downtown Jacksonville.

Located where?

[simms3]

mtraininjax...lol.  I don't know enough about the stadium deal to comment, but your example is just way off base.  I can name on one hand private sector leaders who truly care about Jacksonville and make visible and impactful differences.  I don't think I can conjure up 1/20th of the people in Atlanta even if I researched, or 1/5th in Charlotte or Nashville.

That's hopefully not too insulting to those with influence and who put forth effort who may read that comment, but it is true, sadly.  Arthur Blank has invested so much in Atlanta already, probably enough to buy the City of Jacksonville if that were possible.  His stadium thing may be a bad deal and may pose conflicts with the state, taxpayers, fans etc, but it's offset at least with everything else.  His partner Bernie Marcus has certainly contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to Georgia Tech and Emory, and countless other not-for-profits locally.  They both provide seed money and advise funds, chair non-profits, sit on community boards, bring business to the city, etc etc.

In development world there are even more examples, and as has been mentioned Jim Borders is certainly one of the big names, as is Michael Brewer and Katherine Kelly, the three instrumental folks at Glenwood Park.  It took a good bit of personal financing from all three.

[simms3]

MetroJacksonville got a blurb on Curbed:



http://atlanta.curbed.com/

[Jason]

Nice find Simms!