Earlier this month, when a deal to transform the warehouse complex at Murphy Crossing came crashing down to earth, there was a sense of déjà vu among some community activists.
Among them was 50-year-old Matt Garbett, who can see the old canning factory at Murphy Crossing off the Beltline trail from his home in Adair Park. His frustration has grown over years of watching the sprawling industrial site remain undeveloped.
Lingering disappointment has been tinged with snatches of hope. In March 2024, the Beltline said it was moving forward with plans to transform the land into affordable housing, green space, an arts center, farmers market and expanded transit. People were buoyed when they learned a local developer who lives in the Adair Park neighborhood would be involved.
But then, on Jan. 10, Beltline officials said those plans had faltered and they had issued a notice of termination in late 2024 for the sale of Murphy Crossing to Tempe, Arizona-based developer Culdesac Inc. — which created a blueprint for a walkable, mixed-use development with hundreds of new housing units. Atlanta-based Urban Oasis Development was a partner in the deal.
Beltline officials have been short on specifics about why the deal fell through. But in a statement they said it was due to a challenging economic environment, including “tightening conditions in the capital markets arena for commercial real estate, particularly for mixed-use and multifamily developments.”
While the Beltline website states the project is still moving forward, an official with Culdesac said the developer does not believe the Beltline had the right to terminate the deal. An Urban Oasis official also suggested it was committed to seeing the project through to completion.
In the past, Garbett, co-founder of a progressive urban advocacy group called ThreadATL, has been sharply critical of how officials have kept residents in the dark about plans for the 20-acre site. He said the latest episode had left people in the community with more questions than answers about the future of the project.
“There’s just a level of distrust right now that the Beltline is capable of developing this property,” Garbett said.
Location scouts have gravitated to the 1050 Murphy Ave. property, with filmmakers reimagining the array of cracked asphalt, empty brick buildings and rusted red rooftops for the dystopian movie franchise “The Hunger Games.”
The Beltline has a more idealistic vision for the property, which the city’s economic development arm, Invest Atlanta, acquired through two land purchases in 2014 and 2018.
A 2004 study of the Beltline described Murphy Crossing as one of the “jewels” on the 22-mile loop running around the city. The Beltline called the land a “catalyst for development within southwest Atlanta” and envisions a vibrant hub stitching together the neighborhoods of Adair Park, Oakland City and Capitol View.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
‘We need housing’
One Tuesday afternoon on Jan. 14, Garbett walked down to the Westside Trail just a few blocks from his home on Allene Avenue.
Dressed in a fluorescent yellow biking jersey, ripped jeans and an orange baseball cap, Garbett struggled to contain his disappointment when a reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution refused to squeeze through a hole in a fence for a closer look at the 20-acre property.
“It’s literally right there,” Garbett said after emerging from the shadows to find a warmer spot in the sun. “You could totally break in.”
He was accompanied by another Adair Park resident, Angel Poventud, who followed on his bicycle as Garbett described how he supports Culdesac’s car-free vision for Murphy Crossing.
In September 2022, the Beltline selected Culdesac as a development finalist, along with Urban Oasis, which was founded by local residents Wole Oyenuga and Joel Dixon, who lives just round the corner from Garbett. After months of negotiations, the Beltline formally announced in March 2024 that it had selected the developers for the project.
That has made the latest collapse all the more irksome, according to Garbett and Poventud. They want more affordable housing, even if it means more density right on their doorstep. Poventud has no appetite to go back to the drawing board.
“Put it in my backyard. We need housing, and I want housing,” Poventud said. “It’s a great plan. Now it’s gone.”
In a statement, Atlanta Beltline President and CEO Clyde Higgs said the Beltline remains committed to redeveloping the land. Dennis Richards Jr., vice president of housing policy and development, framed the termination of the sale as a minor setback.
“We will continue advancing these efforts while beginning other key predevelopment activities in the upcoming phases,” Richards said in a statement.
Beltline officials said they would address people’s concerns and the next steps at a Murphy Crossing stakeholder committee meeting in February, adding that all advisory committee meetings are open to the public.
The setback also raised questions about the potential for a MARTA Red Line station at Murphy Crossing that Mayor Andre Dickens announced last year. But the infill station is still a priority, according to Richards.
MARTA and the mayor’s office declined to comment.
Credit: Olivia Bowdoin
Credit: Olivia Bowdoin
Rapid changes
In Oakland City, longtime resident Judy Walker, who moved to Atlanta from New York City to attend college 50 years ago, lives in a historic Craftsman-style duplex. She was disappointed but suggested snags and delays are common for a project of this scale.
Walker sits on the Beltline stakeholder advisory committee, a group made up of neighborhood organizations and representatives from citizen advisory councils, or Neighborhood Planning Units. She trusts the Beltline will eventually complete the project.
However, potential new development partners should pay attention to longtime residents who risk being priced out of the community, she said.
Based on Atlanta Regional Commission data, parts of Adair Park, Oakland City and Capitol View east of the Beltline have already succumbed to the pressures of gentrification. It describes those still in flux as “rapidly changing urban neighborhoods” with a high proportion of people living in poverty amid fast-rising home prices.
“We need to find ways to have developers come in who want to have some true buy-in into the community, help with stabilization, help with job creation (and) paying people money where they’ll be able to stay in their homes,” Walker said.
Poventud and Garbett have seen those changes firsthand.
In 2011, Poventud bought a bungalow in Adair Park for about $14,000 in a foreclosure sale. He spent $150,000 rehabbing it, raising $11,500 through a crowdfunding campaign and qualifying for a $41,000 state income tax credit for preserving historic property.
He estimates his home is now worth at least $500,000.
“Disinvestment happened in these communities for four or five decades. So, investments coming back, that brings opportunity, it brings displacement. But I did not move here to flip my house. I just paid off my house. I want to be here for another 30 or 40 years,” Poventud said.
Garbett bought his house in 2013 for $130,000, and is well-known in the close-knit community. Atlanta Beltline Inc. officials had dropped the ball for a second time after another deal with Atlanta developer Place Properties and South Carolina developer WSR fell through in 2020 after two years of negotiations, he said.
“What does this say about their ability to develop these properties they’re acquiring when they can’t develop the longest-standing property they’ve acquired?” he said.
Officials with Culdesac and Urban Oasis Development declined to get into specifics of the deal and why it fell apart. But Culdesac Chief Investment Officer Caroline Lerner Perel said the company is still committed to developing the land and did “not believe that Atlanta Beltline Inc. had the right to terminate the purchase and sale agreement.”
In a text message, Dixon said Urban Oasis and Culdesac had “fulfilled our contractual obligations and are ready, willing, and able to continue working with Atlanta Beltline Inc. and the community on this important project for our city.”
Developer Mark B. Riley is managing partner of Urban Realty Partners, which is developing the 100-year-old Cut Rate Box warehouse near the Westside Trail into office space and loft apartments. He understood the frustration but said it was a difficult time for large-scale projects, with high construction, land costs and interest rates.
Compared to developments in other parts of the city, such as Midtown, he believed the low-rise neighborhood development proposed by the Beltline at Murphy Crossing should be an easier sell.
“Having said that, everything is difficult right now,” Riley added. “It’s a critical piece of property in a great location. I look forward to the Beltline moving quickly on next steps if Culdesac isn’t the right group to do it.”
Credit: Olivia Bowdoin
Credit: Olivia Bowdoin
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