Across Peachtree Road from Brookwood Hills, the eastern end of Bennett Street is coming down. In recent weeks, crews have been demolishing six vacant buildings there, totaling 75,000 square feet. The former Elleven45 Lounge nightclub next door has already been razed. In late October, Atlanta Beltline leaders held a groundbreaking for Northwest Trail Segment 2A, the short trail piece that will run east from the Bobby Jones Golf Course trails toward Peachtree Road.
When the trail arrives depends on two bridges. One will carry Peachtree Road over the trail, and the Georgia Department of Transportation has not started building it. The other crosses Peachtree Creek, and it is being taken down and built again. Until both exist, the Beltline near Brookwood Hills will reach Peachtree Road at street level through a temporary crossing with new traffic signals.
What the Bennett Street Demolition Is Clearing Space For
Bennett Street has changed uses several times. Rough Draft Atlanta's 2008 history of the street describes it as housing for servants who worked in the Peachtree mansions, then a light-manufacturing and warehouse area, and then a district of antique shops and galleries, including The Stalls. Over time the galleries moved away. Pryor Fine Art left for Miami Circle in 2011, and Rough Draft reported in 2022 that Anne Irwin Fine Art, Thomas Deans Fine Art and Bill Lowe Gallery had also relocated to Miami Circle.
By the time Atlanta Beltline Inc. bought the property, the buildings were empty. The agency paid $11 million for the Elleven45 property in late 2024 and $18 million for six more parcels in August 2025, which gave it 3.2 acres. Buckhead.com called it the point where the 22-mile loop will cross Peachtree Road for the first and only time. The rest of Bennett Street belongs to Onward Reserve. Its CEO told the Atlanta Business Chronicle the company was looking forward to working with the Beltline and would seek third-party tenants for any space it doesn't occupy. The Beltline said businesses at the western end of the street would stay open during demolition.
The trail is only part of what the cleared land is for. In its September 2026 construction update, the Beltline says the Bennett Street demolition is preparing for GDOT's bridge work and the staging areas that work requires. Over the longer term, the agency plans mixed-income housing and commercial stops along the trail on the site. The design will come out of a planning and community engagement process that hasn't happened yet. In August the Beltline expected demolition to wrap up by the end of 2026.
Four Segments, Four Schedules
The Northwest Trail near Brookwood Hills is four separate projects. Each has its own contract and its own dependencies.
| Piece | Where it runs | Where it stands | Expected |
|---|---|---|---|
| Segment 2A | 0.3 mile east from the Bobby Jones Golf Course trails toward Peachtree Road | Broke ground in October 2026; Hasbun Construction is the builder | Completion in early 2028 |
| Segment 2B | 0.3 mile, including the crossing under Peachtree Road | Depends on a new GDOT bridge | No timeline given |
| Segment 2C | 0.1 mile from Peachtree Road to Peachtree Park Apartments | Construction start expected by early 2027 | No completion date given |
| Segment 1 | 0.8 mile from Peachtree Park Apartments along Peachtree Creek to Kinsey Court | Closed for construction; suspension bridge being rebuilt | Mid-2028 |
Work is underway on Segment 2A, west of Peachtree, while Segments 2B and 2C in the middle and Segment 1 at the creek are each held up by a bridge or by procurement.
The Bridge That Will Carry Peachtree Road
Segment 2 is supposed to pass under Peachtree Road just north of Piedmont Hospital. That only works if GDOT replaces the existing Peachtree Road bridge. According to Urbanize Atlanta, Beltline officials said the replacement is scheduled to start sometime in 2028. The Beltline has signed an agreement with GDOT, and GDOT is still working out real estate agreements with property owners for the bridge. Segment 2B depends on that crossing, and it has no timeline yet.
In the meantime, the trail will reach Peachtree at street level. The Segment 2A scope includes, in the agency's words as reported by Urbanize Atlanta, a "temporary trail connection that will provide trail users access to Peachtree Road, where new pedestrian-friendly traffic signals will support safer crossings and improve connectivity while the remaining sections are completed." The trail will move beneath the road only after the bridge work is done.
For people living just east of Peachtree, the first change will be on the road itself. New signals will appear, and trail users will cross at street level near Piedmont Hospital and the Shepherd Center. The Beltline counts Piedmont Hospital as the largest employer along its corridor.
The Bridge Over Peachtree Creek
The second bridge was nearly finished. Segment 1 includes a suspension bridge over Peachtree Creek next to Peachtree Park Apartments, followed by an elevated trail along the creek. Beltline officials said the elevated design was meant to protect residential privacy and preserve green space. In September 2025, Buckhead.com reported that the bridge's superstructure was complete and targeted for June 2026.
Then the bridge started coming apart, deliberately. Buckhead.com reported in May that the disassembly began early in spring 2026, and quoted Kim Wilson, the Beltline's vice president of design and construction:
"An independent engineering review identified matters requiring further evaluation and corrective action by the contractor."
The same Buckhead.com article summarized an October 2025 evaluation by the engineering firm TYLin. During the first concrete pour, the north pylon moved 19 inches toward the creek because the backstays were carrying 1.7 times their intended load. The evaluation also found the foundations wouldn't hold up to scour from a 100-year flood. On comfort, the bridge swayed noticeably under a single walker, and the report estimated that five people walking in step could reach the structure's maximum allowable acceleration. The bridge's budget was just under $3.6 million, part of a guaranteed maximum price of $23,916,713.09 for the whole 0.8-mile segment. Buckhead.com reported that the Beltline's counsel confirmed on May 13, 2026 that there were no change orders for the removal or the rebuild.
As of the Beltline's October 9 update, the replacement bridge design was 60 percent complete. Demolition was expected to start again by the end of this year, and three tiers of the elevated trail also have to be removed and rebuilt so the new bridge can go in. The target for completion is now mid-2028. Residents of Peachtree Park have been able to use the apartment side of the trail since April. The Beltline's project page lists the segment as closed for construction.
The Order the Pieces Will Arrive
Based on the dates published so far, the work near Brookwood Hills will finish in this order:
- By the end of 2026: Bennett Street demolition, as forecast in August.
- Early 2027: Segment 2C construction begins between Peachtree Road and Peachtree Park Apartments.
- Early 2028: Segment 2A finishes, along with the temporary signalized connection to Peachtree Road.
- Sometime in 2028: GDOT begins replacing the Peachtree Road bridge.
- Mid-2028: Segment 1 and its rebuilt Peachtree Creek bridge are expected to be complete.
The underpass, Segment 2B, comes last because the Peachtree Road bridge has to be built first. When the whole Northwest Trail is done, it will run 4.3 miles from Blandtown to the Lindbergh and Morosgo neighborhoods.
The western end is already open. The Beltline trails that loop around Bobby Jones Golf Course in Atlanta Memorial Park have been finished for years. The Atlanta Memorial Park Conservancy lists a free parkrun that starts at Bitsy Grant Tennis Center, 2125 Northside Drive NW, every Saturday at 9 a.m. from October through April. The neighborhood calendar continues as usual. The Brookwood Hills Community Club lists Jolly Holly Day in the park for Sunday, Dec. 6, with cocoa, marshmallows and Santa arriving by horse-drawn carriage.
For some neighbors, the Bennett Street parcels raise the bigger question: what gets built on 3.2 acres directly across Peachtree. If you'd like to talk through what that could mean for your own street, Sonny Jones follows this corridor block by block. Request a private consultation.
