Atlanta

Atlanta conjures up an array of images. It is Scarlett O’Hara and Martin Luther King Jr. It is home to Coca-Cola and CNN. It is a hub for sports and entertainment, and it is home to the 21-acre Centennial Olympic Park, flanked by the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC), the country’s fourth-largest convention complex.

The city’s neighborhoods have transformed. New boutique and upscale hotels dot the urban landscape along the Peachtree Street corridor from downtown up through Midtown to Buckhead, some in converted historic buildings, others in gleaming new towers.

But what stands out amid the renaissance of Georgia’s capital are the dazzling new attractions along the edges of the park, which could forge a prominent new identity for the city. And more are on the way.

It all began less than five years ago with the unveiling of the $200 million Georgia Aquarium, which spurred the development of new hotels, nightlife, restaurants and shopping through an adjacent downtown area now coined Luckie Marietta.

"With our density of attractions we have started to look more at the group travel market," says Mark Vaughan, executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer at the Atlanta CVB. "We are affordable and accessible and have something for everyone. Those who haven’t been to Atlanta in years are amazed."

Within two decades of its Civil War destruction, Georgia’s capital was leading the economic recovery of the New South. There’s a good chance it will be a leader again—this time helping to spearhead hospitality’s march out of economic doldrums that closed the first decade of the 21st century.

This year, the "new" Atlanta has 19 citywide conventions booked, compared with 12 last year, making its one of its biggest years ever for large conventions and, according Vaughan, the CVB is focusing its marketing efforts on building attendance.

"Our activity picked up in the last quarter and we’re pretty optimistic going forward," he adds.

According to Mark Woodworth, president of Atlanta-based PKF Hospitality Research and an Atlanta CVB board member, the future looks bright for the destination.

"Atlanta’s convention calendar is looking good for the next few years," he says. "Also, it hasn’t seen the growth in hotel rooms as it did in previous downturns. Atlanta is bounding back more quickly. We fell of the cliff before the industry did. Now it looks like we’ll be leading the industry out of the downturn."

The city’s latest attractions coup came last September when the National Football Foundation (NFF) announced the College Football Hall of Fame, now in South Bend, Ind., would relocate near Centennial Olympic Park, with a new $50 million, 50,000-square-foot facility opening in fall 2012.

Just to the north of Centennial Olympic Park are the Georgia Aquarium, the world’s largest; the 75,000-square-foot World of Coca-Cola; the Children’s Museum of Atlanta; and Atlanta’s National Museum of Patriotism, which relocated to a site across from the aquarium in February 2009.

In November, the aquarium will open an 84,000-square-foot, $110 million bottlenose dolphin exhibit. And plans are under way for two more museums: the Center for Civil and Human Rights, which has a site between the aquarium and World of Coca-Cola, and the National Health Museum.

Vaughan enthuses about Luckie Marietta, bordering the park. Atlanta’s newest identifiable district, which promotes "a walkable downtown city experience," appointed an executive director last year, and has a website at www.luckiemariettadistrict.com.

"It ramped up in the first quarter of 2009," he says. "We’re very excited about it. There are new restaurants such as Max’s Coal Oven Pizzeria and Legal Sea Foods."

In addition to GWCC, the park and the new attractions, the area loosely bounded by Luckie and Marietta streets encompasses Philips Arena, the Georgia Dome and CNN Center and the Inside CNN Studio & Tour.

Among its hotels are the Omni Hotel at CNN Center, Embassy Suites at Centennial Olympic Park, two historic building-conversion boutique hotels—the 4-year-old Glenn and the 2-year-old Ellis—and the Hilton Garden Inn Atlanta Downtown, which opened close to the aquarium in 2008.

Downtown also saw the opening of the 237-room W Atlanta-Downtown with 8,900 square feet of meeting space, early last year, and Atlanta’s second Hotel Indigo opens on Ellis Street June 1, a conversion of the historic Carnegie Building.

A pedestrian skybridge opened last March linking the Marriott Marquis and Hilton Atlanta, providing easier access to a total of 279,000 square feet of meeting space and 2,800 rooms. And by year’s end the 763-room Sheraton Atlanta, with 90,000 square feet of meeting space, had completed a $20 million guest room renovation.

In January last year, AmericasMart, downtown’s trade complex, unveiled its new Building 2 WestWing, adding 220,000 square feet of conference and trade show space.

Two miles east of downtown, the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, which offers a range of off-site venue spaces, held a gala reopening last October after a five-month, $10 million remodeling and renovation.

Farther north, anchored by the historic Fox Theatre to the south and the Woodruff Arts Center to the north, is Midtown’s cultural enclave. With a diversity of venue space, Woodruff encompasses institutions such as the Alliance Theater, the High Museum of Art and the Atlanta Symphony.

Midtown is also home to the Margaret Mitchell House & Museum and Georgia Tech, which has two of metro Atlanta’s 10 conference centers certified by the International Association of Conference Centers (IACC).

It boasts the city’s largest green space—the 180-acre Piedmont Park—scene of large outdoor festivals. The adjacent Atlanta Botanical Garden last May unveiled the first phase of a $55 million "green" expansion, which included a new visitor center with conference space. This May it opens the final phase, featuring new gardens and a treetop skywalk.

Undergoing transformation is the "Midtown Mile," a walkable 14-block urban magnet along Peachtree Street. It is slated to eventually have more than 1 million square feet of ground-level shopping and restaurants.

Among a dozen or so mixed-use developments under way or planned is the upscale 12th and Midtown, anchored by Loews Atlanta Hotel, which debuts in April with 414 rooms and more than 24,000 square feet of meeting space. For one proposed project, a Mandarin Oriental has been announced.

At the mile’s northern end, the 326-room Georgian Terrace Hotel recently completed an $11 million renovation that included the addition of a third ballroom. The historic hotel has more than 16,000 square feet of meeting space, 5,514 square feet of which is IACC-certified.

Also in Midtown, Kimpton’s 304-room Palomar Hotel opened last year with 10,000 square feet of meeting space, and the former Granada Suites reopened as the Artmore Hotel, with 1,800 square feet of meeting space, following a renovation. Earlier, in spring 2008, a transformed former Sheraton Colony Square reopened as the 466-room W Atlanta-Midtown, with 466 rooms and 30,000 square feet of event space.

Renowned for its affluent neighborhoods, Buckhead, eight miles north of downtown, boasts more than 5,000 hotel rooms and the upscale shopping lures of Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza. It is also home to the Atlanta History Center, which includes a 20,000-square-foot wing dedicated to the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games.

Buckhead’s meetings options have also increased.

Major hotels include The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead, JW Marriott Hotel Buckhead, The Westin Buckhead and the InterContinental Buckhead. Last year, it welcomed the 26-story St. Regis Atlanta, featuring 151 rooms and 51 residences, Georgia’s first Remede Spa and 16,800 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting space, and in November 2008, the new W Atlanta-Buckhead, with 8,000 square feet of meeting space, debuted.

In November, the former 349-room Buckhead Hotel Atlanta officially became the Atlanta Marriott Buckhead Hotel & Conference Center following a renovation. It has 25,000 square feet of newly IACC-certified meeting space.

Outlying Options
Located 10 miles south of downtown and surrounded by 5,000 hotel rooms, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport last year kept its ranking as the world’s busiest airport, serving 90 million passengers in 2008. It has the distinction of having the only airport conference center certified by IACC.

Undergoing a $6 billion-plus capital improvement program, the airport opened a fifth runway in 2006 and plans to open the new 12-gate Maynard H. Jackson Jr. International Terminal in 2012. Last year it added such new stores as Brooks Brothers, Bulgari and Salvatore Ferragamo as part of a new 70-outlet retail and restaurant project.

Two high-profile projects debuted in December: the 1.6-mile ATL SkyTrain automated people mover and a consolidated car rental center. SkyTrain transports passengers from the airport to the new car rental operation and the nearby Georgia International Conference Center (GICC), which delivers 400,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space.

Also in December, a 147-suite SpringHill Suites opened at GICC, and a 403-room Marriott headquarters hotel will open there in August with 20,000 square feet of meeting space. A Hotel Indigo is expected to open at nearby College Park by year’s end.

With completed projects coming together to add to its appeal, the GICC is promoting itself as the world’s only convention center directly connected to a major airport.

Twenty miles south of the airport, the master-planned suburban community of Peachtree City has two IACC-certified conference facilities: the 233-room Dolce Atlanta-Peachtree and the 250-room Wyndham Peachtree Conference Center.

Cobb County in northwest Atlanta serves up the Cobb Galleria Centre, with 320,000 square feet of event space; Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, with a 2,750-seat theater and a 10,000-square-foot ballroom; and Galleria Specialty Shops.

"We have over 120 hotels, more than 13,500 rooms and free parking," says Abbey Harwell, communications and marketing technology manager at the Cobb County CVB. "The performing arts center is filling a cultural void in Atlanta, and has had a measurable economic impact on neighboring hospitality-based businesses."

Nearby Cumberland Mall, she notes, recently completed a major redevelopment and expansion, adding 77,000 square feet of lifestyle retailers and five signature restaurants.

The town of Marietta, located 20 miles from downtown, has historical attractions such as the Gone with the Wind Museum. Two miles from the center is the Hilton Atlanta/Marietta Hotel & Conference Center, with golf and 20,000 square feet of indoor meeting space. It was flagged a Hilton in late 2008 following a $7 million renovation.

Kennesaw is home to the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park and Kennesaw State University. Opened in October, the 192-suite Embassy Suites Hotel Atlanta-Kennesaw Town Center has almost 7,000 square feet of meeting space.

Twenty minutes north of downtown, Gwinnett County features the Gwinnett Center in Duluth, with a 50,000- square-foot exhibit hall, a 21,600-square-foot ballroom, a 700-seat performing arts center and 22 meeting rooms. Its 13,000-seat arena is home to the Gwinnett Gladiators minor-league hockey team and major concerts.

The center is nine miles from Lawrenceville, where the 10,000-seat Gwinnett Stadium, which has event space and is home to the Gwinnett Braves, a Triple A Atlanta Braves affiliate, opened last year.

The 110-room Courtyard by Marriott Atlanta Buford/Mall of Georgia opened last summer at the Mall of Georgia, one of the South’s largest.

Gwinnett is also home to Lake Lanier Islands Resort in Buford at Lake Lanier, which has almost 700 miles of shoreline. The resort includes the 287-room Legacy Lodge & Conference Center, with golf and 23,000 square feet of IACC-certified meeting space. Formerly the Emerald Pointe Hotel, it completed a major renovation in 2008.

Another meetings option is the 276-suite Chateau Elan Winery Resort and Conference Center, located in nearby Braselton. Last year, the property completed a $13 million renovation, which included its IACC-certified meeting space.

Just 16 miles east of downtown in DeKalb County is the 3,200-acre Stone Mountain Park. Centered on an 825-foot-high granite outcropping adorned with carvings of Confederate leaders, it has a range of theme attractions that pulls in 4 million visitors annually.

Two Marriott properties provide meeting space: the 311-room Evergreen Marriott Conference Resort and Stone Mountain Inn.

Six miles east of downtown, Emory University’s IACC-certified Emory Conference Center Hotel completed an expansion designed to LEED Silver standards in May 2009. The project included 127 new guest rooms and an additional 6,000 square feet of meeting space, bringing its room total to 325 and meeting space to 32,000 square feet.