By Ann Boutwell

Central Atlanta Progress, in partnership with Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW), hosted the eighth annual Downtown Development Day last month at AmericasMart.

Experts from Cousins Properties, Forest City Enterprises, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Atlanta Development Authority and other companies offered their knowledge and insight into what’s happening in Downtown.

One of the most talked about sessions during the day was “Land of Opportunity: Underutilized Parcels in Downtown Atlanta” where city planners, financial experts and other experts discussed filling open spaces.

Surprisingly, there is more than 400 acres of property ripe for development in the Downtown core, including the old railroad yard known as The Gulch near Philips Arena.

Other parts of Downtown ready for revival include Auburn Avenue, the Fairlie-Poplar district and the “railroad district” in Castleberry Hill, where the remnants of offices and storage for Atlanta’s busy rail traffic are ready for development.

Attendees went on a walking tour of Downtown to see some of the parcels, as well as get an idea of where the newly announced Atlanta Streetcar will bisect the city as it runs from Centennial Olympic Park to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center on Auburn Avenue thanks to funding from the federal government.

Less than a week after Downtown Development Day, the Cox Enterprises announced that it was donating an underutilized space to the city – the old Atlanta Journal-Constitution headquarters and printing facility on Marietta Street.

Mayor Kasim Reed said the building would be used for city offices and more after the sale of City Hall East earlier this year. “It is an ideal location for consolidated office space for the City of Atlanta and public safety training academies, and it will help save the City money by reducing our current expenditures on building leases,” Reed said.

Uses for the buildings will include consolidated office space, Fire and police officers’ training, multi-use auditorium for public gatherings, gallery space for public art exhibitions, warehouse and parking space