Emory, Georgia State and Georgia Tech are growing their urban footprints and together the three universities are transforming Atlanta.

In the shadow of the former Turner Field, now the home of Georgia State University football, new restaurants are opening up in long-vacant buildings on Georgia Avenue.

Atlanta’s Summerhill neighborhood is adding hundreds of residential units in an area once cut-off from downtown. GSU is the catalyst for projects around the former Turner Field. More than $500 million is in development across the Summerhill area just south of downtown.

Georgia State Stadium rises against the backdrop of downtown office and hotel towers. Nearby, construction continues on a new student housing project. Developed by Aspen Heights Partners, it will add about 200 units.

On Georgia Avenue, a mix of students and professionals sit down for lunch at a new barbecue restaurant, Wood’s Chapel. Across the street at Little Tart, students are buying coffee and pastries and gazing at laptops.

Yvette Watson, a manager at Wood’s Chapel, said Summerhill hasn’t lost any of its character. “It’s still a big melting pot,” she said. One change is all the new families she sees in the neighborhood, adding, “We had to get more high chairs.”

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By Douglas Sams, Commercial Real Estate Editor – Atlanta Business Chronicle

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