But it wasn’t until the Braves decided to move to Cobb, and a team from the Atlanta-based Carter development group came calling, that Becker thought the university could do something so bold. Ever since, Becker believed Georgia State could help. Through those meetings, Becker learned downtown residents wanted more retail outlets close to home. (Becker said purchasing the property isn’t on his radar.) After becoming president in 2009, he participated in a task force focused on Underground Atlanta, which the city now plans to sell. “They have already proven they can be successful in an urban environment,” said Ken Ashley, an executive director in Atlanta for real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield.įor Becker, the decision to expand the university to the Turner Field communities was years in the making. In fact, Becker got a call from former Invest Atlanta CEO Brian McGowan the day the Braves said they were leaving. So when the Braves shocked Atlanta last fall by announcing their move to Cobb, eyes turned instinctively to Becker’s fifth-floor office. “But we’ve turned down much more than we’ve done.” “I get visited by everybody,” Becker said. Georgia State’s growth has been so prolific under Becker and his predecessor Carl Patton that when any thorny downtown real estate problem pops up, Georgia State is often the solution. “I see a kind of economic activity and vitality that says Atlanta is coming back strong,” he said. It’s a far different picture from what Becker saw when he arrived at Georgia State amid a recession that held Atlanta in a chokehold. He swivels in his chair, pointing rapid-fire from window to window in the direction of the future $1.3 billion Falcons stadium, the nearly complete National Center for Civil and Human Rights and other projects either already under construction or well into the planning stages.Ī city that once was “at a standstill,” Becker said, “now has its legs back underneath it.” If they do, they could create a new downtown neighborhood in a stretch of the city abused by decades of broken promises and indifference. Now he and a development team want to convert 77 acres of Turner Field and its parking lots into a $300 million project that will extend the university’s reach. Within the past 16 years, the college has completed projects equal to more than half the size of the Mall of Georgia, not including student housing and sports fields, turning a commuter school into a residential campus. Georgia State University President Mark Becker’s sparse Auburn Avenue office peers out over dorms and classrooms the school stitched together from overgrown lots and aging skyscrapers as law, accounting and other white collar firms fled downtown.
#Middle georgia state university dorms update#
Campus master plan update - completed December 2012.25 Park Place Tower Renovation (five floors) - completed December 2012.Outdoor student recreation facility - football and intramurals practice fields, completed in 2012.Alpharetta Academic Facility - 45,000 square feet, completed fall 2011.Piedmont North Dining Hall - completed fall 2011.Petit Science Center - 360,000 square feet, completed July 2010 Piedmont North Student Housing (943 beds with 315-space parking area) - opened fall 2010.Piedmont Avenue pedestrian improvements - completed in 2011.Decatur Street pedestrian improvements - completed in 2010.Patton Hall - 79,777 square feet, opened fall 2009.Library renovation and expansion - completed in 2008.University Commons (2,000 beds with 786-space parking deck) - opened fall 2007.
University Lofts (435 beds) - opened summer 2001.Aderhold Learning Center - 160,000 square feet, opened fall 2002.Student Recreation Center - 174,000 square feet, opened 2001.North Metro Center - 49,720 square feet, opened 2000.Student Center - 124,000 square feet, opened fall 1998.
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