Development proposal in Atlanta just happens to be Amazon-sized

ATLANTA — As Atlanta vies for Amazon’s second headquarters, a developer just happens to be proposing a $5 billion downtown project with 9.3 million square feet of office space — more than three times the amount in the Empire State Building.

No one’s saying it’s for Amazon — yet.

Details of the massive proposed development are coming into view from public records and comments.

An architect working with Los Angeles-based development firm CIM Group presented its proposal Thursday to an Atlanta business group. Christopher Sciarrone never mentioned Amazon during the one-hour presentation.

But when asked after the meeting whether the project would suit Amazon’s criteria for its new headquarters, Sciarrone said “it would seem to.” He added that he does not know whether the project is being pitched as a site for Amazon.

Public documents filed by the group don’t mention Amazon, but specifications of its proposed project are in line with the retail giant’s requirements.

“The big vision for the developer is this really vibrant, urban, mixed-use community that’s walkable, that’s lively 24/7, that’s not just asphalt parking lots,” Sciarrone said.

The office space that would be created “is almost exactly two Sears Towers,” said Thomas Leslie, an architecture professor at Iowa State University who is the author of “Chicago Skyscrapers, 1871-1934.”

“It would be like building two of them right next to each other,” Leslie said of the 110-story Chicago high-rise, which has since been renamed Willis Tower.

The Atlanta development would include 18 buildings in a part of downtown known as The Gulch, now covered with vast parking decks and vacant lots and sometimes used as a film set, according to planning documents from the Atlanta Regional Commission. Hollywood crews used it to film scenes from the 2016 movie “Captain America: Civil War.” The AMC TV show “The Walking Dead” filmed from a rooftop overlooking The Gulch during the show’s first season.

Most of the 20 finalists for the Amazon project are keeping details of their pitches secret, but Boston has gone public with a massive development proposal on the scale of the Atlanta project. Austin and Dallas are among the cities still in the running.

John Bazemore / Associated Press A developer is proposing a project that would include 18 buildings on a tract known as The Gulch in downtown Atlanta. The projected completion date is 2027, which is when Amazon has said it needs up to 8 million square feet of office space in its second headquarters complex, HQ2.