In a world overflowing with fake downtowns, the real thing can be refreshing.

Unless, of course, it’s got a big hole in its heart.

That’s how former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young once described the area known as the Gulch, an underdeveloped patch of tangled infrastructure surrounded by parking, overpasses and attractions such as State Farm Arena (where the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks play), Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the massive Georgia World Congress Center and, just a few steps away, Atlanta University Center, home to HBCU institutions Morehouse College and the Morehouse School of Medicine, Clark Atlanta University and Spelman College.

Various schemes to redevelop the area always ran into roadblocks, until Tony Ressler came to town. In 2015, a group led by Ressler purchased the Atlanta Hawks. When he saw the Gulch up close, he immediately placed a call to his brother Richard, one of the founders of Los Angeles–based developer CIM Group, asking him to check it out.