Atlanta Journal-Constitution

There is a ton of empty office space available in metro Atlanta. It’s caused the values of some buildings to fall as emptier offices are valued less than fuller ones. Fewer office buildings also are selling, and that lack of activity presents a unique chance for one type of nontraditional buyer: tenants. Across metro Atlanta, several companies have decided to move from being tenants to being landlords, purchasing buildings that they solely occupy or that they anchor while renting out other parts of it for income. “If you’re a tenant of a reasonable size and you’re an all-cash buyer, you have the tremendous opportunity to buy fantastic, once-in-a-lifetime real estate,” said Nathan Williams, a director at Atlanta-based tenant representative firm Scotland Wright Associates

How do you begin a journey of 211 miles, taking the first step toward creating what might become the longest paved recreational trail in the United States? For one Georgia woman, it starts with a 1.5-mile dirt path. Mary Charles Howard envisions the Georgia Hi-Lo Trail will ultimately connect North Georgia to Savannah and the coast, dipping into small towns all along the way. Her dream is getting started in her hometown of Sandersville. Read more on the trail: https://lnkd.in/dGsFmB5C

An entertainment venue featuring immersive digital technology will soon be a neighbor to downtown’s State Farm Arena and Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Cosm, a Los Angeles-based immersive technology and entertainment company, signed a lease to act as the cornerstone of Centennial Yards’ future entertainment district, according to a Monday news release by the project’s developer CIM Group. The three-story complex is the centerpiece of Centennial Yards Atlanta's 8-acre entertainment district, which broke ground earlier this month and is set to be the next phase of the Gulch’s $5 billion redevelopment. “The Cosm at Centennial Yards is the perfect complement to the State Farm Arena, Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Georgia World Congress Center to help make Centennial Yards the sports and entertainment capital of the South,” Cosm CEO and President Jeb Terry https://lnkd.in/ec4Y_qmc

Atlanta is one of six finalists selected to move forward in the Sundance Film Festival’s pursuit of a new host city. The list has been whittled down from 15 cities, which had included Athens and Savannah. The other two Georgia cities did not make the final cut. Sundance, one of the world’s best-known festivals, has been based out of Park City, Utah, since its inception in 1981. Its leadership announced earlier this year that it would consider new locations to relocate when its contract with the city expires after the 2026 festival. #SundanceFilmFestival #Atlanta #2026 https://lnkd.in/dcaS9n2x

A data center campus for Microsoft that's in development south of Atlanta is poised to be larger than the Mall of Georgia. The campus at 4810 Stonewall Tell Road in Union City will span some 2.1 million square feet, state planning documents recently made public. It will also rank among the largest data center projects in the Southeast as measured by energy use. The $1.8 billion project, which received a $75 million tax break from a Fulton County authority, is slated to add to metro Atlanta's fast-growing reputation as a hotbed for data centers, raising concerns about their power consumption, water usage and prevalence. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eBPitzih

The site where Muhammed Ali’s motor home was built will soon be humming again. Not that The Greatest was the only one to snap up a WanderLodge back in the day when Blue Bird Corporation workers were churning out the 40-foot long, 6 mile-per-gallon behemoths. The $350,000 RVs were often outfitted with a bedroom, complete kitchen and several televisions. But now, it’s a different world. And the empty lot in Fort Valley where Blue Bird built the motor homes until 2019 is about to be re-purposed into a factory building electric school buses. More: https://lnkd.in/ebEnk9-8

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines was among those around the world hit by a tech outage on Friday affecting many Microsoft users. But even after other airlines and companies recovered within about 24 hours or so, Delta’s operations went into a full-blown meltdown with thousands of flight cancellations for days. A key reason that Delta is still struggling to restore normal operations is that a key crew tracking tool was hit by the outage and was still not restored to full functionality, according to Delta CEO Ed Bastian on Sunday. Was your flight affected? Read more: https://lnkd.in/eMgqZ7kr

Centennial Yards Atlanta, the multibillion-dollar project poised to transform downtown Atlanta's Gulch, is starting to come into finer focus. Six years after the Atlanta City Council greenlit the $5 billion project, Centennial Yards’ developer says it will feature more residential and a bigger focus on entertainment and hospitality along with fewer offices than early-stage plans. The AJC’s Zachary Hansen takes you inside one of the most transformative development projects in Atlanta’s history. Read more: https://lnkd.in/ekPyCdXH #CentennialYards #theGulch #Atlanta

Dakota Conner doesn’t regret the $15,000 his family spent on new air conditioning and other improvements to their Grant Park restaurant, Dakota Blue, despite the cost and challenge of working on the 100-year-old building they lease. “Being here for 20 years, we’ve been doing things the same way for a long time,” said Conner, who can be found behind the bar most nights. “These past two or three summers, the way it’s just gotten hotter and hotter, it’s just been definitely a lot more trying to figure out how we can stay cool.” Businesses large and small across all industries are facing tough choices when it comes to adapting to climate change, and the cost of cooling is just one factor. More: https://lnkd.in/eT7Ww_D9

For years, a controversial plan by the Alabama-based firm Twin Pines Minerals to mine for titanium on the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp has faced strident pushback from environmentalists and scientists. Now, an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that examined hundreds of pages of government records and court documents has revealed a pattern of operational failures and environmental violations by Twin Pines and subsidiaries of its parent company, Greenfuels Energy LLC. More: https://lnkd.in/eigTM3r3