Business Group Turns To Robocalls For Gulch Redevelopment
![](https://www.wabe.org/app/uploads/2018/09/TheGulch.092618.jpg)
Central Atlanta Progress paid for automated calls to support a deal with CIM Group to redevelop the Gulch with a mixed-use project. The financing of the development concerns some Atlanta City Council members.
KEIZERS / Wikimedia Commons
An Atlanta business group, Central Atlanta Progress, is pushing for the redevelopment of the Gulch downtown by turning to automated calls to try to drum up support for the project.
Some residents received the call from Central Atlanta Progress on Tuesday.
The message said building a massive mixed-use development in the Gulch will create thousands of jobs and affordable housing.
Call From Central Atlanta Progress
“There is a hole in the heart of Atlanta in a 40-acre area called ‘The Gulch.’ I’m sure you know it. It’s filled for almost 100 years with parking lots, train tracks and weeds. But it’s time to change that. There’s a vision. One of an active community filled with new connections and opportunities. That is exactly what enhancing the goals will bring. Thousands of construction jobs, while attracting 35,000 permanent jobs plus $40 million for hundreds of affordable housing units, job training and community development across the city, and that’s only the beginning. Revitalizing the Gulch means investing in Atlanta’s future. There’s a hole in the heart of our city, and it can be healed but only with your help.”
It urges recipients to call Atlanta City Council to show their support.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms will hold a public meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, to try to rally support from City Council members and the public to redevelop the Gulch downtown.
A vote to transform the stretch of parking lots near Mercedes-Benz Stadium, into offices, shops and residences, was postponed last week.
City lawmakers still need to greenlight the project. They’re mulling up to $1.75 billion in public financing for it.