Atlanta's Department of Transportation is cutting Monroe Drive from four lanes to three. It is doing that for the traffic the corridor carries now. On a site whose only road access is Monroe, Portman Holdings is preparing to replace Amsterdam Walk with roughly 674 homes, and its construction is expected to start in spring 2027. ATLDOT lists the road project's finish as July 2028, so the two jobs will run side by side for more than a year.
The city has also said who answers for the gap between them. ATLDOT says any traffic impact from Amsterdam Walk is the developer's responsibility, and the Monroe design doesn't rule out more upgrades later. The Monroe Drive of 2029 will be whatever ATLDOT builds now, plus whatever the developer is later required to add.
| Window | Monroe Drive Safe Street | Amsterdam Walk | BeltLine Northeast Trail |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 2026 | Groundbreaking July 22 | Notices to vacate went out in May | Segment 1 open since November 2024 |
| Fall 2026 | Phase I underway | Invest Atlanta approved tax savings September 17 | Segment 1 landscaping estimated to wrap up; Segment 3 bids due in October |
| Spring to summer 2027 | Phase I reaches its roughly 12-month mark around summer | Phase One construction expected to start | Segment 3 construction expected to start |
| July 2028 | ATLDOT's anticipated finish | Construction continues | Segment 3 construction continues |
| Summer 2029 | Complete | Phase One targeted for completion | Segment 3 runs about 36 months |
What the Monroe Drive project builds
Monroe Drive is on Atlanta's High Injury Network. Those are the roads that account for 73 percent of the city's fatal crashes and serious injuries. The $18.4 million fix is funded as an extension of the original Renew Atlanta/TSPLOST Monroe Drive project.
Between Armour Drive and 8th Street, four undivided travel lanes become one lane in each direction with a center turn lane. The remaining travel lanes are designed at 11 feet. Four lanes stay on the short stretch fronting Ansley Mall between Piedmont Avenue and the mall. The design adds pedestrian crossings throughout:
- 29 marked crosswalks within the project limits, up from 26 today
- Two new pedestrian hybrid beacons, including one between Ansley Circle and Piedmont Road
- Six rectangular rapid-flashing beacons, including one between Ansley Circle and Montgomery Ferry Drive
- Bulb-outs and center median refuge islands at crossings
- Sidewalks and ADA ramps replaced as warranted on both sides
Every traffic signal on the corridor gets new equipment and new timing. One of the ten existing signals will be replaced with a roundabout during Phase II. The plan includes no bike lanes. The 2021 concept report ranked pedestrians first and cyclists fourth, and standard-width bike lanes wouldn't fit. Instead, ATLDOT designed bike crossings at 10th Street and the BeltLine, and at Park Drive. At 10th and Monroe, an earlier BeltLine intersection project already added a 10th Street bike lane, a raised crossing and a new signal at Kanuga Street.
Why the city didn't wait for Amsterdam Walk
Neighbors raised Amsterdam Walk as a reason to hold off. The city went ahead with the safety work anyway. ATLDOT's April 2026 answers to residents put the split in writing. The traffic-study recommendations for Amsterdam Walk belong to the developer. Future projects have to mitigate their own impacts, and nothing in the Monroe design prevents upgrades later.
That split matters because of where Amsterdam Walk sits. Urbanize Atlanta describes Monroe Drive as the only road in and out of the site, and traffic on Monroe was the main argument against the rezoning that City Council approved 8-6 in April 2025. City staff have said they don't expect drivers to cut through side streets, based on projected drops in congestion, and ATLDOT has said it will keep watching how people drive. Those projections were made for the road as it is now. The new apartments and storefronts are a separate obligation that lands later, on a different party.
What Amsterdam Walk's first phase puts along the BeltLine
Invest Atlanta's board voted 6-2 on September 17 to approve about $14.8 million in tax savings over 10 years. The savings are tied to 39 units set aside for households earning 80 percent of area median income. City Council member Matt Westmoreland and school board member Ken Zeff cast the two no votes.
The numbers for Phase One vary by document. Portman's May filing listed 666 apartments. In September, Portman told Atlanta News First the phase is now about 674 homes, 174 of them affordable. The 539 units in Invest Atlanta's resolution cover only part of that phase. Portman's Mike Greene described how the affordable units were structured:
"We worked extremely hard with our partners and project team to create a plan that delivers both a greater number of affordable homes and deeper levels of affordability than would otherwise have been required by the city."
The site plan matters more day to day than the unit count. Phase One fills the strip between Monroe Drive and the Northeast Trail. It has five buildings, two of them wrapped around parking garages, with height limits of 85 and 95 feet. The plan shows 11 separate pedestrian links to the BeltLine, plaza space, more than 100 secure bike parking spaces and 96,452 square feet of commercial space. About 19,000 square feet of ground-floor retail is planned at a 30 percent rent discount for tenants. Phase Two would sit east of the BeltLine, next to homes on the Highland Park Lane cul-de-sac. That area is blank in the May filings, and no timing has been given.
The overlap, in order
Put the published schedules together and the next three years look roughly like this:
- Now through about summer 2027. Monroe's Phase I runs from just north of Park Drive to Armour Drive and takes about 12 months.
- Spring 2027. Portman expects to start Amsterdam Walk construction. Around the same time, BeltLine Northeast Trail Segment 3 is expected to start. That segment includes connectors to Lindbergh MARTA, PATH 400 and Armour-Ottley.
- Through July 2028. Monroe's Phase II covers 8th Street through Park Drive, including the roundabout and minor work at Montgomery Ferry Road, over 12 to 18 months.
- Summer 2029. Amsterdam Walk Phase One is targeted for completion. Invest Atlanta's bond fact sheet gives a 31-month build and says only 2029.
Read the dates as estimates. ATLDOT says the scope and schedule can change. The city's own April materials also place the two Monroe phases on different stretches of road from one document to the next. The July coverage and the city's Q&A agree with the order shown above.
What is still open this fall
Amsterdam Walk has been a mix of shops, restaurants and small businesses for nearly 30 years. Red Light Café, the live-music venue there since the 1990s, has shows on its October 2026 calendar. Piedmont Bark still lists its daycare, boarding and grooming at 501 Amsterdam Avenue on a site updated in September. Sean's Harvest Market closed this spring. Its Yelp listing mentions a January reopening, but the listing gives no year. Notices to vacate went out in May, though none of the reports name who received them. No business has publicly announced a closing date or a move.
The trail side of the edge is in better shape than it has been in years. Northeast Trail Segment 1 runs 0.8 miles from Monroe Drive to Westminster Drive along Piedmont Park. It has been open since November 2024, and its final plantings are estimated to finish this fall. Segment 2 continues 1.2 miles from Westminster to Mayson Street, with access at Piedmont Park's North Woods and at Piedmont Avenue. It has been open since November 2023. Portman's plan keeps the gravel interim trail between its 11 BeltLine connections.
If you own a home on a street that feeds Monroe and are weighing when to list, these overlapping schedules belong in the plan, and so do the buyers who will tour while both projects are underway. Shanna Smith can walk through the timing with you. Request a private consultation.
