ATLANTA -- Georgia State University officially began construction Monday on what was formerly known as Turner Field. It marked the beginning of retrofitting the baseball stadium into a college football stadium.
The school's athletic department Tweeted a picture to mark the event.
Construction is officially underway. pic.twitter.com/m7r76L6OeF
— GSU Panthers (@GSUPanthers) February 27, 2017
The construction company, J.E. Dunn Construction Group, began work inside the stadium, and the demolition process began, according to the athletic department.
That process will continue for about the next two weeks. They will remove thousands of seats to downsize the stadium to about 23,000 seats, with plans to add more in future phases.
The stadium is scheduled to open in time for the team's season opener against Tennessee State on Aug. 31. Then, crews will continue construction on the stadium after the first season.
The stadium will be known as Georgia State Stadium. It was formerly known as Turner Field when it was the home of the Atlanta Braves. It was also the Olympic Stadium in 1996.
The latest proposed development documents submitted to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs show that the "Blue Parking Lot" will be where the Panthers' new baseball stadium will be built. Georgia State President Dr. Mark Becker expects team to play the 2019 college baseball season in the new stadium.
Construction to build new student housing is expected to begin later this year. Scott Taylor, the developer with Carter helping Georgia State, is hoping to begin re-purposing some of the existing buildings on the 68-acre site as early as this summer.
According to the Department of Community Affairs filing, the remainder of the property could be developed by Georgia State into a project that could grow to as much as 1.5 million square feet of office space, 700,000 square feet of commercial and retail space, 625 hotel rooms, some 2,750 apartment units, and 50 single-family homes.
The filing says that Carter would put together the project for the University, which has an overall estimated completion date of 2031.
