Mall at West End’s planned $350M overhaul is moving forward

Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development booster, has kicked in funding to help a planned $350 million overhaul of Mall at West End get off the ground.

Atlanta Beltline visionary Ryan Gravel is part of a team that wants to transform the aged 12.5-acre property southwest of downtown, in an effort to help lift up an area that’s eventually planned to be better connected with the Westside Trail.

Invest Atlanta last week approved $2 million as a predevelopment loan for a project that would designate 20 percent of 450 residential units as affordable housing, according the Atlanta Business Chronicle, which also published new conceptual designs for what the mall could become.

Elevator City Partners

Beyond housing, the initial venture by Elevator City Partners—cofounded by Gravel and area native Donray Von, a venture capitalist—would bring some 170,000 square feet of retail, more than 400 hotel rooms, and more than a half-million square feet of offices.

Elevator City Partners is angling to buy the 1970s mall property, and as attributes, they point to one-block proximity to West End’s MARTA transit station, access to Interstate 20 and downtown, and site’s status as a federal opportunity zone.

Gravel and Von have said the massive project would ideally feature job training and a $10 to $15 million fund dedicated to bolstering local businesses.

In an interview with CBS46 Atlanta this week, Von called the prospects of buying the mall where he grew up hanging out the “opportunity of a lifetime” and enough to lure him back from Los Angeles.

According to Invest Atlanta documents, the team’s acquisition of the mall could happen late this year, followed by the first phase of construction in fall 2020.