On June 12, the Atlanta Beltline held a ribbon-cutting for Southside Trail Segments 2 and 3. That gave the city 16.7 miles of continuous trail, the longest unbroken stretch the project has delivered. The designers call it "The U." It runs from Armour Yards to Blandtown and links the Northwest, Westside, Southside, Eastside and Northeast corridors. The bottom of that U is a 14-foot-wide concrete path, about 1.9 miles long, running from McDaniel Street at University Avenue near Pittsburgh Yards to Boulevard in southeast Atlanta.
This is the first fall the trail has run without a gap, and the new stretch is filling in from its two ends. Boulevard, where the Southeast and Southside trails meet in Grant Park, is collecting coffee, pizza and a planned two-level patio building. Pittsburgh Yards anchors the west end with a container courtyard and the trail's busiest event dates. The 1.9 miles between them still belong mostly to parks, bridges and access stairs, and that's where this season's evening programming is.
Where the U Bends
The Beltline's own trail page describes the Southside Trail as connecting with the Southeast Trail near Grant Park and running 2.4 miles to the Southwest Trail just past Pittsburgh Yards. In practice, the bend is on Boulevard SE.
Condesa Coffee at 1015 Boulevard SE is the business sitting right at that junction. The Beltline's September roundup listed the specialty coffee shop as being in its soft-opening phase and announced an official grand opening for September 9. It's the first café to open at the point where the two trails meet.
Heading north on the Southeast Trail, the openings come quickly:
- Spina Pizza held its grand opening August 27 at Atlanta Dairies, 777 Memorial Drive SE. Led by Anthony Spina Jr., it serves Neapolitan-style pizzas, old-world pastas, tiramisu, aperitivo cocktails and natural wines.
- The BeeHive, which the Beltline calls Atlanta's oldest retail store focused on handmade goods from local makers, has a new home in Glenwood Park. Its shelves run from candles and ceramics to home décor.
- Trattoria Lucia, a new Italian restaurant, opened in Glenwood Park earlier this year.
The Beltline counts more than 6,000 businesses registered within a half mile of the corridor. The Eastside Trail has carried most of that density for years. Since June, a run of new names has been showing up at the bend in the U.
The 1.9 Miles Between the Anchors
A walk west from Boulevard has fewer storefronts and more structure. The trail passes under I-75/85, crosses a bridge over Pryor Road and crosses Milton Avenue at street level. The Beltline lists the historic So So Def Walls in the I-75/85 underpass as trail art. Lighting, security cameras, retaining walls and new landscaping were all part of the design.
The project presentation names six new access points on this segment:
- Pryor Road
- McDonough Boulevard
- D.H. Stanton Park
- Hill Street
- Grant Street
- Grant Terrace
Anyone who uses the Grant Street entrance should plan around a closure. The Beltline says the Southside Trail stairs at Grant Street are closed for repairs, with work expected to last through October, Monday through Saturday, weather permitting, and it asks trail users to follow detour routes. The project timeline calls this "stair layout at Grant Street corrective work" and expects it to be finished in October 2026. Punchlist work and landscaping continue through the rest of the year, and landscaping is expected to be complete in spring 2027. The plantings along this stretch will look different by next spring.
Besides D.H. Stanton Park, the Beltline lists Boulevard Crossing Park, Pittsburgh Yards, The Beacon and Terminal South as destinations along the Southside Trail. D.H. Stanton is the one getting the evening crowds this fall.
The West End Already Has a Courtyard
At the McDaniel Street end, Pittsburgh Yards was already ahead of the new trail. A February 2026 Rough Draft Atlanta report listed these tenants as open at the Container Courtyard, 352 University Avenue:
- Urban Grind Brew Box
- Pink Pothos
- The Creamy Spot
- Coffyn Pyes
- Atlanta Bicycle Rentals
The same report said Ideal Barbers, Carrot Dog, Adam J's Grilled Cheese and Black Box Cafe were expected to open in the following weeks. Check each one's current hours before building a Saturday around it. If you'd rather ride the U than walk it, Atlanta Bicycle Rentals is the bike stop on this end.
Pittsburgh Yards also hosts some of the Beltline's own events. For this year's Lantern Parade on September 19, the Kids Parade ran at Pittsburgh Yards from 4 to 7 p.m. The main parade followed the Southwest Trail toward Lee + White. The November bus tour starts there as well.
This Fall's Dates on the Southside Stretch
These are the scheduled dates on or near the new segment for the rest of the season:
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday, Oct. 18, at dusk | Beltline Art screening of "Minnie Evans: Draw or Die" | D.H. Stanton Park |
| Friday, Nov. 6, to Sunday, Nov. 8 | ATL StyleWriters Jam | Multiple Beltline sites |
| Sunday, Nov. 8, at dusk | Beltline Art screening of "American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez" | D.H. Stanton Park |
| Friday, Nov. 13, morning | Beltline Bus Tour | Starts and ends at Pittsburgh Yards, 352 University Ave. SW |
The bus tour listing gives an 8:45 a.m. arrival window running until noon, and its description says the tour departs at 9 a.m. Plan to arrive by 8:45. The two dusk screenings make D.H. Stanton Park the evening stop on this stretch this fall. Its access point and the trail lighting installed with the new segment put it about midway between the coffee at Boulevard and the courtyard at Pittsburgh Yards.
What Fills the Gaps Next
The next storefronts on the Boulevard end are already planned. Urbanize Atlanta reported in August that Under New Management plans to turn 1075 Boulevard SE into "neighborhood commercial" space. The two-story, wedge-shaped masonry building, nicknamed the "Do Nothing" building, sits a few yards from the new trail in Chosewood Park. The plans call for two tenants, patios on both levels, and move-in sometime next year. The city approved a Special Administrative Permit in July. According to the same report, Fulton County property records show the building traded for $10,000 in 2018 and sold for $202,500 in August 2024. That 2024 sale came two years before the trail opened beside it.
Two Beltline projects nearby are further out. The Beltline posts the details for the first on its Southside Trail Segment 6 project page.
- Southside Segment 6 is a roughly half-mile stretch along Bill Kennedy Way between Glenwood Avenue and Memorial Drive. It includes a new pedestrian bridge over I-20 and upgrades through Glenwood Park. The locally funded section was posted for bid in August 2026, with Section A pricing due at the end of September, and the federally funded section is slated to go out for bid in Q1 2028. The Beltline expects each phase to take 16 to 18 months. The September update didn't report a bid result.
- Boulevard Crossing Park is designed to grow from 5 to 25 acres with direct access to the Southside Trail. Construction is waiting on budget confirmation and the completion of design and permitting. Urbanize describes the expansion as designed but not funded.
Segment 6 would cover the walk between Spina Pizza's Memorial Drive address and The BeeHive in Glenwood Park. A larger Boulevard Crossing Park would bring the biggest open space on this stretch to within a few blocks of the junction. Together with 1075 Boulevard, both point the next round of building back toward the bend in the U.
For now, Condesa sits at the junction, The Creamy Spot is at Pittsburgh Yards, the Grant Street stairs are expected to reopen at the end of October, and "Minnie Evans: Draw or Die" screens at D.H. Stanton Park on October 18 at dusk.
If you own near Boulevard, Grant Park or Chosewood Park and want to know how this new stretch of trail affects your address, Sylvia S. Gause tracks these changes block by block. Get Your Instant Home Valuation to see where your home stands as the trail around it fills in.
