Drive down Corporate Boulevard this month and you'll see survey stakes near the old office buildings, a demolition notice or two, and maybe a work crew sizing up something behind the fence line. If you follow local news, you already know why: Brookhaven just landed $13.5 million in federal funding to finish the next stretch of the Peachtree Creek Greenway, and right next door, a $605 million redevelopment called Northbend is gearing up to break ground.
It's easy to read those two headlines together and assume the corridor is about to transform overnight. It isn't. The funding and the groundbreaking are running on two very different clocks, and understanding the gap between them tells you more about what your neighborhood actually looks like over the next two years than either announcement does on its own.
What the Money Actually Buys
On May 13, 2026, the Atlanta Regional Commission voted to award Brookhaven $13,593,489 in federal funding to complete Phase II of the Peachtree Creek Greenway. Mayor John Park called it a turning point for the city.
"The PCG has always been about creating connections between our neighborhoods, our businesses, and our region. With this funding secured, we are turning that vision into reality and taking the next major step toward a more connected and accessible city."
That's a real milestone, and it covers a specific, mapped stretch: a 1.1-mile extension of the existing trail from North Druid Hills Road southwest to the Fulton County and City of Atlanta line. Once built, it becomes a 14-foot-wide concrete path linking Brookhaven's trail to PATH 400, the South Fork Conservancy trails, and the Atlanta Beltline's Northeast Trail, the kind of cross-jurisdictional link that turns a neighborhood amenity into a regional one.
But an ARC funding vote is not a construction start date. According to the city's own Phase II project page, right-of-way, environmental, and utility certifications aren't anticipated until June 2026, and the construction contract itself, what the city calls the "let," has already shifted to August 2026. Once that contract is let, the city's general timeline for the phase estimates construction will take up to 24 months to complete. Do the math and the honest answer for anyone who wants to walk this new segment is sometime in 2028, not this year and probably not next.
There's a wrinkle worth sitting with here. Brookhaven has not always trusted federal timelines. For Phase III of the same Greenway, the stretch from Briarwood Road to Clairmont Road, the city chose to skip federal funding entirely and pay for it with local dollars instead, specifically to avoid the delays that typically come with federal money. That's the same city now celebrating a $13.5 million federal win on Phase II. Both things can be true: the money is good news, and the process it triggers is slower than a headline suggests.
The Model Mile, For Now
While Phase II works through permitting, the trail you can actually use today hasn't changed. The completed section, known locally as the Model Mile, runs 1.3 miles from Briarwood Road behind REI to North Druid Hills Road, with trailheads and parking at 2036 North Druid Hills Road, 1801 Corporate Boulevard, and 1799 Briarwood Road. It's lit at night, ADA compliant, and has bike repair stations and dog waste stations along the way. It opened in December 2019 and, funding announcements aside, it's still the whole story on the ground through at least this year.
Here's how the pieces line up against each other:
| Project | Milestone | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Greenway Phase I (Model Mile) | Opened to the public | December 2019 |
| Greenway Phase II | Federal funding awarded | May 13, 2026 |
| Greenway Phase II | Construction contract let | August 2026 (est.) |
| Greenway Phase II | Estimated completion | Roughly 2028 |
| Northbend redevelopment | Groundbreaking | Summer 2026 (est.) |
| Northbend redevelopment | First deliveries | 2028 (est.) |
Notice that both major projects converge on roughly the same finish line. That's not a coincidence worth ignoring. It means the more visible disruption for the next year or so is likely to come from the private side of the fence, not the public one.
The Development Next Door Is Moving First
That private side is Northbend, the new name for the old Corporate Square office park. Atlanta-based Third & Urban and its capital partner, HighBrook Investors, spent the better part of last year assembling 30 acres from four separate sellers, and the site has since been rezoned as a master-planned development. Groundbreaking is targeted for summer 2026, with eight underutilized office buildings coming down to make way for new streets and infrastructure.
The first phase alone is substantial: 10,000 square feet of retail, 390 multifamily units, 23 rental townhomes, 119 for-sale townhomes, and 140 corporate housing units, plus a one-acre public plaza. Ten percent of the rental units are designated affordable. Once complete, the site is expected to include roughly 5 acres of public greenspace, and it's designed to connect directly into the Peachtree Creek Greenway.
One detail matters more than the square footage: the retail is explicitly food-and-beverage focused, and the developer has said it plans to partner with businesses already established along the Buford Highway corridor rather than importing chains from scratch. Northbend also sits directly across I-85 from the newly opened Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Arthur M. Blank Hospital and Emory University's Executive Park Healthcare Innovation District, a cluster of employers, including the CDC's global headquarters, that together account for more than 40,000 jobs. The housing mix here isn't speculative. It's aimed at people who already work a five-minute drive away.
Urbanize Atlanta reports the project is projected to generate roughly $8.2 million in annual tax revenue for the city once finished, along with about 400 construction jobs and 300 permanent ones. First deliveries are expected in 2028, the same rough window as the finished Greenway extension next door. If both timelines hold, the corridor resets at nearly the same moment. Until then, expect demolition equipment at the old Corporate Square site well before you see any trail-building crews on the Greenway itself.
What's Already Open, No Waiting Required
None of this means the neighborhood's food scene is standing still until 2028. Two new spots opened this year without any megaproject behind them.
SIREN, a coastal seafood concept from restaurateur Michel Arnette, opened August 18 at 2700 Apple Valley Road NE, right next to Arnette's Chop Shop. The menu leans into oysters, crudo, and wood-fired dishes, with chefs Stephen Herman and Matt Swickerath running the kitchen and a wine list built by sommelier Andrew LeClair. It's open Tuesday through Saturday, 5 to 10 p.m. Arnette's Word of Mouth Restaurants group also runs Haven, Valenza, and Vero Pizzeria, so SIREN slots into a hospitality footprint that's already familiar to regulars in the area.
A few miles over on Clairmont Road, Richard Gazaway and Michael Colombo, longtime friends from their days working together at Vintage Pizzeria, opened Unkie's Pizza and Bar this spring at 3400 Clairmont Road, Suite A, in the space that used to be The Greek Pizzeria & Gyros. Gazaway grew up in Chamblee and told local reporters he wanted to stay close to the community he already knew rather than start somewhere unfamiliar.
Neither of these openings needed a $605 million master plan or a federal trail grant to happen. They're evidence that the corridor's day-to-day texture, the part that shows up in your actual weekly routine, is changing faster than the infrastructure headlines suggest.
The Practical Takeaway
If you live near the Greenway, the honest read on this year is: the funding is real, the groundbreaking is real, and neither one changes what you can walk, bike, or eat today versus six months from now in any dramatic way. The Model Mile is still the Model Mile. SIREN and Unkie's are already open regardless of what happens at Corporate Square. And the bigger transformation, the one that links Brookhaven's trail all the way to the Beltline and reshapes 30 acres of empty office parking into housing and greenspace, is a 2028 story being written in 2026.
Keep an eye on the construction fencing at the old Corporate Square site. That's your best real-time indicator of how the larger timeline is actually moving, more reliable than any press release.
If you're weighing what a fast-changing corridor like this means for your own plans, whether you're watching from the sidelines or thinking about what a property near the Greenway could be worth once both projects deliver, Malka Shulman is a straightforward person to talk to about it. Reach out through the contact form any time you want a local read that isn't waiting on a press release to catch up.
