Outlook foggy on when new Beltline bridge might actually open

A year and ½ after it was installed, a pedestrian bridge linking a popular stretch of Atlanta Beltline trail to a cornerstone intown shopping center isn’t as vibrantly blue as it once was. 

And still, it’s off limits. 

Celebrated, Charleston-based restaurant Lewis Barbecue announced plans in June last year to open its first Georgia outpost in a converted section of Ansley Mall facing the Beltline’s Northeast Trail. The outlook at the time called for opening the multi-level smokehouse sometime this summer, with a direct Beltline connection via the creek-spanning pedestrian bridge. 

Selig Enterprises, the 1960s mall’s longtime owner and redeveloper, didn’t specify an opening timeline for the bridge or restaurant when asked for an update. The bridge—still gated by locked chain-link fencing—currently leads to an active construction site. 

Elizabeth Hagin, Selig’s associate vice president, said her firm is “excited to welcome renowned pitmaster John Lewis’ third location of Lewis Barbecue to Atlanta” and that “we will have more details for both the bridge and Lewis Barbecue openings once the construction is closer to completion” in a statement provided to Urbanize Atlanta. 

According to a Special Use Permit application filed last year, the barbecue joint will stand two stories adjacent to other retail spaces. All the Beltline-facing spaces at Ansley Mall will total 11,000 square feet, according to retail leasing agents Bridger Properties.

For Lewis Barbecue, the Ansley Mall outpost will mark the concept’s third location, following others in Charleston and Greenville. Some 3,000 weekly patrons are expected in Atlanta, with a substantial portion of them arriving from the Beltline. 

Another 100 to 150 vehicles per day are expected at the mall, per the SUP application.  

Selig, which has owned the 16-acre mall property for half a century, installed the 105-foot pedestrian bridge in late 2023. It's intended to serve as a seamless mall connection for Beltline patrons—and an easier link to the Northeast Trail for residents in nearby neighborhoods such as Piedmont Heights. 

As of November, all Northeast Trail segments are now finished between southern Buckhead and Monroe Drive, opening off-street access to the Ansley Mall area for a multitude of neighborhoods in both directions.

The repositioning of eastside properties to better interface with Beltline trails has been a trend for more than a decade now. 

Notable early adopters included the Ladybird Grove & Mess Hall space and Murder Kroger (RIP), where a connecting trail and jovial mural were installed in 2014 to help lure customers from the Eastside Trail. A more recent example is the Midtown Promenade redo near Piedmont Park, where the back alley was converted into a plaza entrance with new shops and eats, including an Athlete’s Foot flagship. The Painted Park concept in Inman Park is another, more recent case of backdoors becoming Beltline welcoming mats.

Selig bought Ansley Mall in 1972 and still considers the shopping center a jewel in its 4-million-square-foot portfolio of retail properties across the Southeast. Elsewhere in Atlanta, those include adaptive-reuse district The Works in Underwood Hills, The Shops of Buckhead, Brookwood Place, Peachtree Plaza, and Buckhead Square I and II, among other holdings.

Ansley Mall’s tenants today include Publix, The Cook’s Warehouse, Ansley Wine Merchants, Richards Variety Store, Brooklyn Bagel, and Intaglia Home Collection, among others.

Swing up to the gallery for a closer look at the bridge that will connect Beltline users to all of the above (eventually) alongside mall redevelopment plans.  

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