The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Crews still trying to dismantle tilting crane
Work continued Wednesday on a crane in Midtown Atlanta after a mechanical failure caused it to tilt as crews tried to lower it Friday. After determining it risked falling on buildings below, Atlanta firefighters went door to door evacuating hundreds of residents. Monday evening, they were allowed to retrieve some belongings. It’s unclear how long it may take crews to dismantle the crane.
Denise Kalentzis can see the 32-story building where she lives from the window of her hotel room at the Marriott in Midtown.
And she can see the thing that has kept her from barely setting foot in that building for the past five days: the massive, metallic form of a crane reaching skyward, which prompted evacuations Friday all along West Peachtree Street when construction crews saw that it was at risk of toppling.
“I keep looking at it,” she told The Atlanta Journal-constitution, “but I don’t see it moving yet.”
The Atlantic House apartments, along with several nearby businesses, have been closed since Friday morning, when crews working at the high-rise at 1105 W. Peachtree St. first became concerned about the teetering crane. Hundreds of apartment and condominium residents have been unable to return to their homes, instead taking shelter in hotels paid for by construction company Brasfield & Gorrie while crews work to dismantle the colossal piece of equipment.
A mechanical failure caused the crane to tilt as crews were attempting to lower it. After determining it was in danger of falling on buildings below, Atlanta firefighters went door to door clearing out homeowners.
Jack Carvalho was busy working at his desk inside his apartment Friday morning, the window in front of him overlooking West Peachtree.
What he saw unsettled him.
Looking up, he saw that the crane that had been erected in front of the 31-story office tower across from his apartment was beginning to lean. Below, he saw a sea of neon-vested workers staring upward.
“I was texting my buddies, and all of us were like, ‘This doesn’t look right,’” he said.
Within minutes, Carvalho heard sirens throughout his building, he told the AJC. He packed a bag with several changes of clothes, unsure when he would be returning home.
“Nobody really knew what was going on,” he said. “Firefighters were saying it could take a few hours to fix, and that turned out to be a total crapshoot. But there were a lot of people who didn’t know what was going on, and that’s nobody’s fault.”
Carvalho said he and a few friends went to stay at a property his father owns in Atlanta until their apartment complex offered to put them up in a hotel.
Kalentzis previously told the AJC she grabbed a $7 bottle of sauvignon blanc and her 14-year-old Maltese mix, Kiki, before she and her husband walked out of their apartment at the Atlantic House.
“We just grabbed our essentials and the dog and left,” she said.
Kalentzis, who along with her husband, PK, hosts the podcast “PK and DK,” settled into a work routine from a hotel room.
“PK grabbed the microphones, and we went to Costco and got a new laptop, and we’ve been doing the show from the hotel room,” she said. “On Monday, we recorded on the bed. On Tuesday, we did the show from the couch.”
On Monday evening, residents of the Atlantic House were allowed a two-hour window to retrieve some of their belongings from their homes.
“We had between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., and when we got there, the staff was there cheering for everyone and saying, ‘Welcome back,’” Kalentzis said.
Predictions for when residents will be able to permanently return to their homes have varied. Atlantic House told residents that construction officials believe they might be able to return to their apartments Friday.
“Different variables such as weather and wind conditions can affect the timeline, but (the construction management team) have assured us that they are working as fast as they can to get us back to Atlantic House as soon as it is possible,” the property told residents in a message.
The construction company, Brasfield & Gorrie, on Wednesday said it had finished reinforcing the malfunctioned crane, “marking an important step toward safely resolving the situation.”
“The meticulous steps to reinforce the crane and install new structural members are part of the plan to safely dismantle the crane this week,” the company said in a statement. “We are mindful that many people are impacted by this situation; we are working as hard and as fast as safely possible with the goal of dismantling the crane safely.”
The Atlanta Beltline is just over halfway through a series of public meetings on its proposal to increase taxes on businesses and apartment complexes around the multiuse path to help finance its final years of construction.
The Beltline will continue with virtual meetings next week focused on the northside and southeast portions of the trail at 6 p.m. Monday and Thursday. Beltline officials will discuss the prospective “Special Service District” program and answer questions from the community.
The creation of the Special Service District could bring in $100 million in additional tax revenue during the next 10 years, Beltline officials said. Under the proposal, commercial and multifamily property owners would see an uptick in their annual property taxes; a property appraised at $1 million would pay an additional $800 per year, according to Beltline documents outlining the plan. Owner-occupied homes, condos or townhomes would not be subject to the tax increase.
The Atlanta City Council is currently considering legislation that would impose the tax hike.
Beltline CEO Clyde Higgs said the extra tax dollars would give the Beltline the ability to complete the full, 22-mile trail loop — potentially by 2029, a year ahead of schedule. With the additional funding, the agency estimates it would also be able to spend an additional $50 million on affordable housing, create 20,000 additional jobs, put $7 million toward support for small businesses and allocate up to $150 million of construction funding to minority-owned contractors.
“That is game-changing for us,” Higgs told The Atlanta Journal-constitution last month. “If we didn’t have this, we would sputter along, and we do a half-mile here, half-mile there.”
The proposal also has the backing of Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who said she is encouraged by the affordable housing and community revitalization components of the plan.
Some local groups are against the idea as currently proposed.
The Upper Westside Community Improvement District, a business organization in northwest Atlanta, recently passed a resolution stating the proposal would put an unfair burden on its area. The northwest trail is currently last on the Beltline’s list of segments that will be built and paved during the next eight years.
The CID said it would support the tax increase if the plan ensured that any taxes collected from businesses there would be used only to fund trail construction in that area.
The group Beltline Rail Now, which advocates for transit along the Beltline, also
issued a statement opposing the plan.
“The current proposal is far too narrow, and fails to connect to the full vision of the Atlanta Beltline that includes parks, trails, affordable housing, and Beltline transit for an increasingly congested city. We ask the City Council to include direct transit funding in any Special Service District,” the organization said.
The Beltline already has a Tax Allocation District that brings in funding, but it is not expected to create as much revenue as initially expected, Higgs said. Without the additional funding from the Special Service District, Beltline officials said, the final portions of the path will not be completed before 2030.
The tax increase would apply to land located in the Atlanta Beltline Planning Area, a zone that includes the TAD and properties within a half-mile on either side of the trail.
The Beltline has already held public meetings focused on the westside, southwest and northeast portions of the trail. All residents and business owners are able to attend any of the meetings, the Beltline said.