After two decades, four mayors, and nearly 200 real estate deals, the Atlanta BeltLine finally owns every piece of land it needs to close the 22-mile loop. The last one was tiny: a 0.2-acre vacant lot in Blandtown, bought for $500,000. The sale closed Sept. 22 and was announced Oct. 1, according to SaportaReport.
"It was a relatively small transaction that got us over the finish line," said Dave Pierce, the BeltLine's vice president of real estate and asset management.
The lot unlocks the Northwest Trail, the hardest segment on the map. Most of the BeltLine follows old freight rail corridors. The northwest side has no rail bed to follow, so planners had to weave a path through existing neighborhoods. Feasibility studies started in 2021, the team weighed six or seven routes, and a preferred alignment was picked in 2022. Since then it has been one parcel at a time.
The finished segment will connect Blandtown, on the edge of West Midtown, to the Lindbergh and Morosgo area in Buckhead. Owning the land is not the same as pouring the concrete, but it removes the biggest question mark hanging over the 2030 finish date.
