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CNN Center is remade and billed as downtown Atlanta’s version of the Braves’ battery

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CNN Center is remade and billed as downtown Atlanta’s version of the Braves’ battery

Crew employees were seen removing the iconic CNN sign from CNN Downtown on Monday, March 2024. The famous symbol will be renovated and find its new home on the Techwood campus of Warner Brothers Studios in Midtown. Miguel Martinez /miguel.martinezjimenez@ajc.com

Credit: Miguel Martínez

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Credit: Miguel Martínez

The center sits on the doorstep of State Farm Arena and borders Centennial Yards, the $5 billion redevelopment of downtown Gulch, the tangle of railroad tracks and parking lots between Five Points and Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Benz.

Renderings show development that draws on downtown’s sports and tourist attractions.

“When CP (Group) and Rialto implement their vision at the Center, this development will become downtown’s version of The Battery, Ponce City Market and Avalon,” said Nicole Goldsmith, CBRE broker in charge of tenant recruitment of offices for the building. “At the center of Atlanta’s entertainment hub…this will truly be a one-of-a-kind offering in urban core Atlanta.”

Sid and Marty Krofft's indoor amusement park, The World of Sid and Marty Krofft, at the Omni International complex (now known as CNN Center) in Atlanta, November 15, 1976. This photo was taken five days later the closure of the amusement park. MANDATORY CREDIT: THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

Credit: AJC file

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Credit: AJC file

The CNN Center atrium is now as quiet as a library after the media company largely pulled out of the complex.

Credit: Bill Torpy

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Credit: Bill Torpy

The new renderings were released by Atlanta-based Healey Weatherholtz Properties, which was selected to attract commercial tenants. The images detail some of the most eye-catching areas of the makeover, including the new commercial corridors leading to State Farm Arena and the Georgia World Congress Center. The renovations include 130,000 square feet of retail space as well as 920,000 square feet of office and media production space. The promotional material was first reported by Urbanize Atlanta.

Using the slogan “Find your way to the Center”, the marketing campaign attempts to anchor the complex’s new name in the public psyche – a difficult task for iconic buildings. Chicago’s Willis Tower is still often known as the Sears Tower, while Atlantans haven’t completely given up calling Truist Plaza and Truist Park by the bank’s old name, SunTrust.

CNN Center wasn’t always the name of the building. It was originally the Omni complex, developed by famed Atlanta real estate giant Tom Cousins. It contained the Omni Coliseum arena which once housed the Hawks and Flames, the Omni Hotel, offices, a huge atrium and an ice rink. The pop-up theme park, World of Sid and Marty Krofft, famous for the 1960s children’s television show “HR Pufnstuf”, occupied part of the campus.

But the offices were largely empty until CNN opened its headquarters there in 1987.

CNN announced in January 2023 that it would move its operations entirely from Atlanta to a new 30-acre Turner Techwood campus in Midtown, not far from where the network was founded. The CNN Center had already slowly emptied out over the years since CNN actually moved its headquarters to New York.

A timetable for the Center’s redevelopment has not been released, but its potential adds to a wave of investment underway in the city center.

The Omni Atlanta Hotel recently underwent $15 million in renovations to freshen up the rooms, and the city is preparing to host several 2026 World Cup matches. The Centennial Yards project is also gaining momentum with plans to break ground on construction of several buildings by the end of this year.

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