Atlanta hopes to spruce up Peachtree Street : A civic group wants to refurbish rundown portions of the famous road in time for the Olympics.

When Atlanta won the 1996 Summer Olympics, it guaranteed itself a massive face lift.

For parts of Peachtree Street, the lift can’t come too soon.

Peachtree is Georgia’s most famous thoroughfare, and one of the best known in America. While it sparkles around the downtown area where developer John Portman’s creations soar, the street sinks to tawdriness only a few blocks away.

Tourists can spend big money in the hotel district, with its upscale shops, stores and restaurants. But if they venture a little to the north on Peachtree, they run into empty buildings with dirty windows and homeless men sleeping in doorways. They also see the Imperial Hotel, an eight-story wreck of a historic building owned by the financially squeezed Portman. It is a stark contrast to the nearby Hyatt Regency and its airy atrium, which made him famous.

Such contrast is common in the downtown areas of most American cities. The glitter often has grime as its backdrop.

But here, people seem more embarrassed by that than in most places. Atlanta prides itself on its newness, a pride that has in the past gone so far that beautiful old buildings were razed in favor of ugly modern boxes.

Now the Olympics are raising hopes of a building boom and cash bonanza. Coincidentally, a civic group launched a competition for architectural and urban design plans to refurbish a four-mile stretch of Peachtree and an intersecting street, Auburn Avenue, the city’s longstanding black commercial district.

Paul Kelman, vice president of the civic group, Central Atlanta Progress, said the Olympics victory “couldn’t have come at a better time” because it will attract creative entries and help ensure the plans get off the drawing board.

“Now the city will be motivated to see the project through by the time the Olympics get here,” Kelman said.

In the blush of victory, all problems seem soluble, but like the challenge of funding and building the Olympic facilities, sprucing up Peachtree will not be easy.

Wade DuBose Burns is an Atlanta architect whose projects include remodeling and rebuilding the 28-acre town square in Greenwood, S.C., a project on which $100 million has been spent so far. He said planners here must overcome the problem of “disjointed real estate, where there isn’t a continual flow of activity.” He said property owners and public officials must be convinced of how important the street is to visitors, who are the lifeblood of Atlanta’s economy.

“Visitors are out on the street,” he said. “They want that street to . . . entertain them.”

Even if the politicians and property owners agree on the need to cater to tourists, there is no guarantee they will agree with Central Atlanta Progress on how to improve the street and how to pay for it, Olympics profits notwithstanding.

Several owners of what one real estate broker called “Grade-B” properties complained that they are reluctant to invest money to upgrade the properties because the area is thick with street people.

Richard Shair, president of a real estate brokerage that handles properties on Peachtree, said tenants “put benches out, and you got bums sleeping on them.”

Ray Boyd, a Peachtree property owner, said he tried to beautify his property by putting a $1,000 planter on the sidewalk. It soon “looked like a trash dump,” he said.

Kelman said the designs for upgrading Peachtree will focus mostly on the public right-of-way, including sidewalks and “street furniture,” such as trash containers and lights.

He acknowledged that some property owners may balk at paying for the improvements, but he said his group is considering several financing plans, including the creation of special tax districts that would cover Peachtree properties. He also said congregations of several churches, which are tax-exempt, might be persuaded to help finance the refurbishing.

Several Peachtree occupants said they supported the idea of making the street look better, agreeing that the timing is right because of the Olympics.

“Atlanta is destined to be a great international city,” Boyd said proudly.

Is he willing to invest to improve Peachtree? “I can give you a definite maybe.”