Is Hotel the Economic Boost Auburn Avenue Needs?

The Sweet Auburn District, which is getting plenty of concerted attention designed to revitalize its signature namesake corridor, may have a get a boost in the form of a boutique hotel.

The Historic District Development Corp., the Sweet Auburn-based organization founded to preserve the district's legacy and spur economic development, sees a hotel as a possibility in that goal.

The focus is the Herndon Plaza at Auburn and Piedmont avenues, according to a report in the Atlanta Business Chronicle. [Readers, you will need to be a subscriber to read the full story.]

Herndon Plaza played a significant role in Atlanta's history.

The Atlanta Life Insurance Co. — founded by former slave Alonzo Herndon, the city's first black millionaire — called Herndon Plaza Home for more tha 50 years.

ButHerndon Plaza is just one piece of the Sweet Auburn District's overall redevelopment puzzle.

The National Trust Main Street Center, a private non-profit whose mission is to help save historic places, is working HDDC officials to revitalize the commercial corridor.

The NTMSC helped form a steering committee to create a blueprint of what needs to be done.

That steering committee, which includes Atlanta City Councilman Kwanza Hall, Mtamanika Youngblood, the HDDC's president of and Fulton County Commissioner Joan Garner, among others, already has incorporated a non-profit entity, called Sweet Auburn Works.