The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/11/08
The area a few blocks south of Grant Park retains a gritty, industrial character marked by rusting warehouses, empty lots and a sprawling public housing complex.
But the hardscrabble stretch includes a segment of Atlanta's Beltline — a planned 22-mile loop of transit, trails and parks — that has been identified by the project's planners as one of a dozen spots that are ripe for redevelopment.
 CURTIS COMPTON/Staff | ||
| The Atlanta Housing Authority plans to tear down and redevelop the Englewood Manor public housing project. Across from the new development will be a 21-acre park. | ||
 Lord, Aeck & Sargent Architecture | ||
| This rendering shows a proposed mixed-use development along the Beltline, near Grant Park. Neighborhood leaders are looking forward to the addition of shops and restaurants. | ||
 CURTIS COMPTON/Staff | ||
| Construction workers take apart the old Peach State Wrecker warehouse at the corner of Boulevard and Englewood Avenue, where a 21-acre Beltline park is planned. Built in the past few years, the Park Row development (background) shows how the area is changing. | ||
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Indeed, much is already happening that promises to transform the area, dubbed Boulevard Crossing, into an urban village of condos, apartments, shops and parks with views of the downtown skyline.
Over the last few months, several developments have been announced that could bring more than 1,200 apartments and condos alongside new retail space — possibly even a supermarket. Already in place: a row of brightly colored townhomes and a hip, loft-style office building.
It's a significant investment for a part of town long overlooked by developers.
"There's just an enormous unmet need for basic goods and services in the neighborhood," said David L. Smith Jr. of Atlanta-based Trowbridge Partners, which is acquiring property in an effort to build a supermarket-anchored shopping center.
Neighborhood leaders in the Chosewood Park community, just across the tracks from Grant Park, have told Smith they would also like to see restaurants, doctors' offices, dry cleaners — "things that communities north of I-20 take for granted," he said.
Developers like Boulevard Crossing's location — it's close to downtown and near affluent intown communities like Grant Park.
And other big changes are looming. The city plans to build a 21-acre Beltline park in the area called Boulevard Crossing Park. The Atlanta Housing Authority, meanwhile, is preparing to tear down and redevelop the Englewood Manor public housing project across from the future park.
The biggest selling point, though, may be the proximity of the Beltline, the city's 25-year, $2.8 billion effort to redevelop a series of old freight rail lines snaking through dozens of intown Atlanta neighborhoods.
The Beltline remains in the planning stages, but development in the Boulevard Crossing area is already heating up as developers appear eager to tie their fortunes to the massive public-works effort.
Projects in the area announced in the past few months include:
* A multifamily housing complex with up to 600 units and 15,000 square feet of retail, called City View at Englewood, just south of the Beltline on Englewood Avenue.
* A 400-unit multifamily complex with ground-level retail that would replace industrial buildings just north of the Beltline tracks on Grant Street, from Atlanta-based E Group.
* A multifamily housing complex on Boulevard just south of the Beltline, near Trowbridge's planned shopping center, from Cobb County-based Walton Communities.
The Beltline is "setting the vision and prioritizing the growth in the corridor," said Marc Fritz, whose company, Flow Metro, is developing City View at Englewood.
And it certainly doesn't hurt that neighborhood leaders have welcomed the influx of investment into their community. Simon Reynolds, co-chairman of the Chosewood Park Development Corp., said there's a need for more retail in the area, where shopping choices are largely limited to check-cashing stores and liquor stores.
"We're like other folks — we'd like a place to get a salad and a pizza, a cup of coffee and it not be a package store or a gas station with people accosting you as you go in," said Reynolds.
Most of the proposed development is residential, but Reynolds said once more people live in the neighborhood, new shops and restaurants should follow.
"That's the exciting thing about the development," said Reynolds. "The rooftops everybody says they need to see to make retail or any kind of commercial development a success" are on the way.
Architect David Green with Lord, Aeck & Sargent has been working closely with the Chosewood Park community to craft a long-term plan to guide the development that includes a logical street grid surrounding a renovated neighborhood park.
Some commercial space recently opened on Boulevard, at the trendy Ten Forty commercial lofts building. Developers carved 13 units out of an old industrial building, featuring concrete floors, 18-foot-high ceilings and garage doors that open onto the Beltline. The first tenants include an advertising agency, an event planning firm and a salon.
Other sizable developments have been proposed in the general area.
A few blocks to the south, a Lawrenceville developer has plans to convert the long-closed General Motors Lakewood assembly plant into a village with 1,200 homes and 25,000 square feet of retail. To the east, Lane Co. is planning about 400 apartments and townhomes near the Beltline on East Confederate Avenue in the Grant Park community.
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