Walk the paved section of the Peachtree Creek Greenway behind REI on Briarwood Road on any weekday evening and you'll see the same crowd: dog walkers, a few Emory employees cutting through on their way home, a stroller or two. The trail ends abruptly at North Druid Hills Road, the same place it's ended since December 2019. For nearly seven years, that has been the whole story. This year it stopped being the whole story, and the reasons why are worth understanding before the construction crews show up.
The trail money that took seven years to arrive
Phase I of the Greenway, the 1.27-mile "Model Mile" running from Briarwood Road to North Druid Hills, opened to regional acclaim in December 2019 and became the template every neighboring city pointed to. Phase II, the stretch that would actually connect Brookhaven's trail to the Atlanta Beltline, PATH400, and the South Fork Conservancy trail system, spent years in right-of-way acquisition and environmental review with no construction money attached.
That changed in May 2026, when the Atlanta Regional Commission voted to award Brookhaven $13,593,489 in federal funding to complete Phase II. Mayor John Park called it a major milestone for the city, and the numbers back up the sentiment: right-of-way acquisition is now complete, certification was expected in February, and construction is scheduled to begin this year with an anticipated 24-month build. When it's done, the Greenway will run from North Druid Hills Road down to the Atlanta city line, finally linking Brookhaven's trail network to the region's largest multi-use path system instead of dead-ending at a stoplight.
The same funding announcement pointed to something happening a few blocks away that explains why this particular seven-year wait finally ended: a private developer had already committed, on its own, to building trail connections as part of a much larger project along the same creek.
The office park across I-85 is becoming the trail's biggest customer
Corporate Square, the aging 1970s office campus between Buford Highway and I-85, spent years as the kind of property real estate people describe as underutilized. Third & Urban and its capital partner HighBrook Investors closed on the full 30-acre assembly in late 2025 and renamed the site Northbend, a reference to the bend Peachtree Creek makes along the property's northern edge. Brookhaven City Council approved the rezoning that spring, and groundbreaking on the $605 million mixed-use district is scheduled for this summer.
The first phase alone calls for 390 multifamily units, 23 rental townhomes, 119 for-sale townhomes, 140 corporate housing units, 10,000 square feet of food-and-beverage retail, and a one-acre public plaza, with roughly five acres of greenspace across the full build-out. Third & Urban has said it will preserve the tree canopy along the Greenway and fund its own sidewalk, road, and linear-park improvements tying directly into the trail.
Here's the part that matters if you already live in Brookhaven and don't plan to move into Northbend: the development sits directly across I-85 from Children's Healthcare of Atlanta's Arthur M. Blank Hospital and Emory's Executive Park Healthcare Innovation District, an employment cluster that, together with the CDC's global headquarters, employs more than 40,000 people. Northbend's housing is built for that workforce, and a workforce that size needs a walkable way to get from a corporate apartment to a hospital shift without adding another left turn onto Buford Highway. That's why a private developer is paying to extend public trail infrastructure instead of waiting for the city to get around to it. The Greenway isn't just a city public-works line item anymore. It's part of how a $605 million project plans to fill its buildings.
Two festivals bookend the same six weeks
None of this would matter much to a Saturday if it weren't landing in the same season as Brookhaven's two biggest fall events, both of which sit inside a six-week window this year.
| Date | Event | Location | What's new |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu, Oct. 1 | Taste Brookhaven | Brookhaven City Centre | 16 restaurant partners, VIP rooftop hour under the Cherry Blossom Dome, benefits CHOA's Strong4Life program |
| Sat–Sun, Oct. 17–18 | Brookhaven International Festival | Brookhaven Park | Fourth annual, headlined by Cumbiatron, DROP, and Olly Sholotan, includes a 5K benefiting We Love Buford Highway |
Taste Brookhaven is a 21-and-up ticketed tasting event, with general admission at $125 and a $250 VIP tier that adds early rooftop access and complimentary valet. The International Festival is free and family-friendly, running 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days with a global marketplace, food trucks, and chalk art alongside the concert lineup. Two very different events, aimed at two different Saturday moods, three weeks apart.
Where dinner fits into all of this
If you're heading to either event, or just want a reason to walk the existing trail before the construction fencing goes up, the neighborhood's dining options expanded meaningfully this year. Michel Arnette, the restaurateur behind Arnette's Chop Shop, opened the coastal seafood concept SIREN next door in August, led by chefs Stephen Herman and Matt Swickerath and built around oysters, crudo, and wood-fired dishes. A few doors down, MIRAE, an Asian concept blending Korean and Japanese flavors with an extensive craft bar, is already open and drawing attention for dishes like pork katsu with fig gastrique. El Valle, a Mexican restaurant with a Latin wine list, has also landed in the same Dresden Drive stretch.
None of that changes the thesis here. It's supporting evidence that the corridor connecting the Greenway, Northbend, and Brookhaven Park is filling in on every side, not just the infrastructure side.
What actually changes for a Saturday here
For now, the physical trail is unchanged. It still runs 1.27 miles from Briarwood Road to North Druid Hills Road, the same footprint it's had since 2019, and the Phase II construction that starts this year won't hand you a finished connection to the Beltline overnight. A 24-month build means the realistic completion window stretches into 2028.
What's different is the next two years have a shape now. The trail has money and a start date. The office park next door has a groundbreaking date and a stated commitment to build its share of the connection. And the fall calendar gives you two concrete reasons to be outside in the meantime, on Oct. 1 at Brookhaven City Centre and again on Oct. 17 and 18 at Brookhaven Park, with a new stretch of restaurants along the way if you want to make an evening of either one.
That's the actual news buried under three separate press releases this year: the same creek is pulling public infrastructure, private capital, and neighborhood programming toward the same six-week stretch of calendar, and none of the three groups behind it planned it together.
If you're weighing what any of this means for a home you already own here, or you're curious how a project like Northbend tends to move property values in the surrounding blocks over a two-year build cycle, that's a conversation worth having with someone who tracks this corridor closely. The Betsy Meagher Team works Brookhaven alongside the rest of intown Atlanta, and we're happy to walk through what we're seeing block by block. Schedule a free consultation whenever you're ready.
