After two decades, four mayoral administrations and nearly 200 real estate acquisitions, the Beltline finally has the land it needs to close the 22-mile loop and complete Atlanta’s “emerald necklace.”
Atlanta Beltline, Inc. closed the sale for the final piece on Sept. 22, and announced it Oct. 1. It’s a minor parcel — only 0.2-acres of vacant land in Blandtown. The Beltline bought it for $500,000.
“It was a relatively small transaction that got us over the finish line,” Dave Pierce, Vice President of Real Estate and Asset Management at the Atlanta Beltline, Inc. said.
But that small transaction will allow the Beltline to finish its complicated Northwest trail segment, and eventually the entire trail. While most of the Beltline follows former freight rail corridors, the Northwest segment doesn’t come with a right-of-way.
Atlanta Beltline, Inc. leaders had to “weave” through existing neighborhoods instead. In 2021, the agency started feasibility studies. Pierce said the team met with neighborhoods and businesses and toyed with “six or seven” different paths.
“It was sort of an iterative process,” he said. The team decided on a preferred alignment in 2022 and started acquiring property along the route, bit by bit. The path would connect Blandtown to the Lindbergh and Morosgo neighborhoods.
“Frankly, this last little bit on the Northwest was probably the most challenging, because we didn’t have the old rail corridor to work with,” Pierce said.
Pierce has been with the Beltline since 2015, though. He said the final piece is cause for “restrospection” about the long path to buying up the Beltline land. For 10 years, he led acquisitions on everything from 15-square-foot lots to 65 acre parcels. The smallest piece was a corner of someone’s backyard.
“One of the reasons why it takes as long as it does is because it’s not just these big spots of land,” Pierce explained, “It’s sort of those small acquisitions when you’re trying to shoehorn this trail.”
The real estate team leader recognized the frustration about the Beltline’s long timeline, but he said the “pathway to get it done” was the only hold up. Now, the trail is on its way to a 2030 finish date. But the work isn’t finished.
“While this is a major milestone, as they say, there’s no rest for the weary,” Pierce said.
Atlanta Beltline, Inc. will continue to acquire land alongside the Beltline right-of-way, according to Pierce. The agency aims to add more affordable housing to reach the 5,600 unit goal by 2030 – it has created or preserved 4,555 so far. The Beltline will also buy up real estate for affordable commercial space, spur trails and even improvements to the existing loop.
Pierce teased plans for a dedicated Beltline bridge over I-20 to improve safety and access on the Southside trail, or a paved path at Lee & White on the Westside Trail. For now, he and the rest of the Beltline team are enjoying the milestone moment.
“This is a defining milestone for the Atlanta Beltline and for the future of Atlanta,” Beltline CEO and President Clyde Higgs said. “For more than 20 years, our team has worked property by property, neighborhood by neighborhood, to assemble the land and property to make a 22-mile trail around Atlanta possible. Today that work is complete.”
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