Morris Brown Revival In Vine City
Educational Resource: Developers are adding a 30,000-square-foot learning and innovation center on the campus of Morris Brown College. Photo credit: McMillan Pazdan Smith Architects
A consortium of developers working to revive an 8-acre site in Vine City says it envisions a community-focused, mixed-use destination that includes education space.
Resurgence Commercial Partners recently announced it had received approval from Invest Atlanta to begin work at the long-vacant site near the Sunset Avenue corridor, which contains the childhood homes of Martin Luther King Jr. and former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson.
The new development will eventually include a 100-room boutique hotel, 200 mixed-income residences, retail and nonprofit space as well as a 30,000-square-foot learning and innovation facility for neighboring Morris Brown College. The facility will host conferences and support business and technology incubation.
The decision to build the facility on campus is something of a full-circle moment for the historically Black college because it sold the site to Invest Atlanta in 2014. At the time Morris Brown had filed bankruptcy and was seeking Chapter 11 protection as it tried to settle its debts.
The school has since rebounded, regaining full accreditation in 2022. Resurgence Commercial Partners Principal Ashley Thompson told the Saporta Report the development team wants the project to reinforce Morris Brown’s role as an economic and cultural anchor in the community. 
