See on Scoop.it – Midtown Atlanta Conversations and Condos
ATLANTA — The legacy of the 1996 Games is always a source for spirited debate. Is Atlanta better off? Or worse?
We are bigger, more sophisticated and we possess a skyline we didn’t have before.
Perhaps the most lasting imprint on the city is Midtown and its metamorphosis into something big and grand.
“There is no question, I think Midtown is the center of gravity where the city is both north and south,” Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said. “I think it was due in large part to the Olympics.”
Mayor Reed grew up here. He remembers Midtown the way it was 30-plus years ago.
“When I was a boy, the most important thing was the Gorin’s Ice Cream on that corner. That’s gone and there are skyscrapers there,” he said.
And many of the skyscrapers in Midtown were put there by one man, his vision and his money — the former Georgia Tech quarterback John Dewberry.
“While the light shined brightest in Downtown during the Olympics, it certainly had an effect on Midtown,” said the Milton High School graduate.
John Dewberry is Atlanta’s most prominent real estate developer and CEO of Dewberry Capital Corp. His investments total more than $1 billion since the 1996 Games. He has reshaped how we see the city on many different levels.
“I saw Midtown as a place that not only had landscaping with parks and neighborhoods, but also had the nexus of commercial development where international companies would locate,” he said.
See on www.nbcolympics.com
