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Braves’ brand at core of mega mixed-use project

“We are getting our Ph.D. in real estate development.”

That’s what Derek Schiller, Atlanta Braves executive vice president of sales and marketing, told me over lunch recently at the team’s Turner Field offices. About 12 miles northwest of Atlanta in Cobb County, there are six cranes and crews working six days a week on SunTrust Park and the surrounding 90 acres of development, one of the most interesting projects in sports. I’ve been closely watching this, in addition to the other major mixed-use projects or proposals, including those from Jeff Vinik and the Lightning in Tampa; the Oilers in Edmonton; the Dallas Cowboys in Frisco, Texas; the Kings in Sacramento; and the Giants in San Francisco, all examples of sports team as developer.

Mike Plant, Braves executive vice president of business operations, and Schiller, both longtime executives are rookies when it comes to such large-scale development. But they are strictly focused on this ambitious project that could be a new model of the 24/7, 365-day sports and entertainment community, all while their colleagues were focused on Opening Day this past Sunday.

A thousand Comcast employees will work in the complex that will house an innovation and research lab.
Photo by: COURTESY OF THE ATLANTA BRAVES
It’s a huge gamble — a $672 million ballpark, where one can see a shell of an outfield, along with a $450 million to $500 million mixed-use development. While a team traditionally would turn the project over to a developer to complete, here it’s Plant and Schiller leading the effort, with a 2017 opening that will include the ballpark, hotel, office space, entertainment venue, multiple restaurants and a number of high-end boutique fashion destinations.
“Less than 99 weeks. That’s what keeps me up at night,” Schiller said, adding that he and Plant book their schedules now in 15-minute increments.

A significant step in the development was a deal that may not have received the attention it deserved: the Braves’ multiyear technology and real estate partnership with Comcast. The Philadelphia-based company will put 1,000 employees in a nine-floor office complex that will house an innovation lab and sit just beyond the ballpark’s outfield and next to an open plaza area. It’s a major technology coup for the Braves, and a deal so important to Comcast that CEO Brian Roberts was on hand to tout bringing a multi-terabit network to SunTrust Park and the entire development, promising the most technologically advanced mixed-use development in the U.S. “The Comcast deal puts this entire project on jet fuel,” Plant told me.

Plant and Schiller are now leading final negotiations for the hotel, entertainment venue, restaurants and retail — from company targets to construction to lending. For the Braves, it’s a long-term play; the team signed a 30-year lease to be in Cobb County. They insisted on controlling all aspects of the project and all the covenants tied to the development. While we all know tales of developers moving on to their next project as soon as one is done, here it’s different. “We are driving this,” Plant said. “Our ownership, credibility and the strong brand of the Braves is allowing us to do a project of this significance.” Rarely do you see sports team executives directing the vision, identity, look and feel of a project with such complexity.

“Unlike some ballparks where the experience starts as soon as a fan walks into a facility, here the Braves fan experience will be the entire complex,” Schiller said. “We need to figure out how to take a presence in the ballpark and extend it — where it makes sense — into the mixed-use area.” He said the team’s naming-rights partner, SunTrust, could have a presence with retail branch locations, ATMs and other ways to showcase its product. The Braves will take that inclusive approach to selling their major sponsorship deals, such as pouring rights for the entire complex, and will package digital signage elements in sponsorship packages across the development.

The hope is to have a project general manager on board by July, as the number of moving parts are dizzying. For example, Plant and Schiller are debating whether 100 percent of the 600 residential units will be rented or whether, with the condo market coming back, some will be sold. They anticipate the residences closer to the ballpark will attract a millennial segment, with hip, loft-style apartments.
Braves execs say the ballpark project has helped spur $600 million in new development in Cobb County. The open plaza will be an area of “great
connectivity.”
Photo by: COURTESY OF THE ATLANTA BRAVES
Farther away from the ballpark lends itself to more traditional-style residences that could draw an older crowd.

Schiller’s spending a lot of time and energy on the open plaza, a key area where sports and entertainment meets retail and residence. He envisions a plaza of “great connectivity,” with pregame, postgame and off-day events — “think yoga in the park.”

When it comes to the retail mix, they are targeting fashion-driven, boutique retailers, estimating a 70-30 percent mix of female to male shoppers within the walkable community. They motion over to the 4,500-capacity, 50,000-square-foot entertainment and music venue that will feature no seats but two stories and a VIP-type balcony overlooking the stage. Across the street is restaurant row, as they envision multiple restaurants ranging from high-end, white-tablecloth options, to high-volume mid-tier (think Houston’s or Yard House), to fast casual. Also look for an emphasis on local restaurants with local flavors.

But it’s not just growth within this footprint. The two executives believe the project will transform the county, as $600 million of new development around Cobb has been planned since the team announced its deal in 2013. An adjacent area, The Galleria, has one of the largest concentrations of office workers in the Southeast, and SunTrust Park and its development can serve as a hub. “The area was missing a galvanizing piece,” Plant said. “This is it.”

There remains plenty of skepticism around the project. After leaving lunch at Turner Field, my Uber driver criticized the team’s approach with the city of Atlanta and insisted the project would be a dud. A question for Schiller at a Business of Sports Summit in March focused on neighborhood response to construction and the development, while the team has a tough task of playing two lame-duck seasons at Turner Field.

But it’s a bold and fascinating move away from the established trend of urban development in favor of a suburban model, driven heavily by analytics and where the team’s fan base resides. It’s also another significant step in the model of sports team as developer and dramatically altering lifestyle and community living.

Abraham D. Madkour can be reached at amadkour@sportsbusinessjournal.com.

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