West End Atlanta is the redevelopment of the West End Mall, a 12-acre parcel in a reemerging commercial district one mile southwest of downtown. It will be designed with civic and cultural spaces, a vibrant street-level retail experience, lifestyle office and co-working, active and mixed-income residential, hotels, and wellness amenities.
West End flourished in the early 20th Century, but the Jim Crow era brought misguided and unsuccessful attempts to protect white Atlanta from the expansion of black residential districts through redlining and highway construction. The eventual transformation of West End into a predominately African American community coincided with the breakthrough election of Mayor Maynard Jackson in 1973 – the first black mayor of Atlanta and of any major city in the South.
In the City of Atlanta, Opportunity Zones cover parts of historically-disinvested communities, primarily south and west of downtown. The portion of the West End commercial district that includes the West End Mall is within an Opportunity Zone. In fact, West End has the only OZ that is within close proximity to the Atlanta BeltLine, a MARTA rail station, and an Interstate Highway.