Owner: Retail bound for corner on Eastside Trolley Trail, near El Tesoro

Plans are moving forward in Edgewood for a boutique retail concept the property owner hopes will benefit from a steady stream of multipurpose-trail foot traffic next door. 

The project, situated on the northeast corner of the Whitefoord and Woodbine avenues intersection, could be a key cog in a hub of eating and drinking establishments planned for an eastside neighborhood that lacks a historic downtown section. 

Last year, a crumbling, 2,482-square-foot commercial building from 1945 was razed at the 142 Whitefoord Ave. site. It had been vacant for more than a decade, with a collapsed roof and trees growing inside. 

Today, the .26-acre site has more cachet than most, given its front-row status along the Eastside Trolley Trail, a popular Beltline-to-Kirkwood connector trail installed in 2023 by the PATH Foundation. Across the street, taqueria El Tesoro is so popular, lines often form around the block.

Sara Thurston, the lot’s new owner and a licensed real estate agent, tells Urbanize Atlanta she’s submitted plans to the City of Atlanta for building permits to move forward with infill development on what’s currently used as a dirt parking lot. 

Thurston’s plans, drawn up by Decatur’s Lightroom architecture firm, call for a retail building standing two stories, with a restaurant on the ground floor and offices and storage for the business above. What type of restaurant could operate there has yet to be determined, per Thurston. 

The same parking footprint as the previous building’s will be used again, and plans call for the building to be “thoughtfully designed to blend in with the current landscape of the corner,” per Thurston. 

No renderings or other visuals are publicly available. Negotiations and revisions with the city are ongoing, Thurston said. 

“I’m hoping to break ground in the next three months,” said Thurston. “As soon as I get the permit approved, I want to get started.” 

One hurdle is the site’s status as being in a FEMA flood zone, which Thurston says requires new construction to be at least four feet above ground level. That requirement doesn’t apply to existing structures for adaptive-reuse development, but Thurston says the previous building onsite was too deteriorated to salvage.  

“My goal is to have [the retail building] completed within a year of breaking ground,” she says. “I’m so excited about it.”

Across Whitefoord Avenue, the situation appears to be quieter at another food-and-beverage concept planned for the area. 

Next to El Tesoro, to the north, plans were revealed in spring last year for turning a former 1950s auto garage into a local pizzeria and neighborhood market with patio seating in front and some parking in the rear.  

The building and business owner, longtime Edgewood resident Sid Weinstein, told Urbanize Atlanta he hoped to open that combo business by last fall at the latest, operating it seven days a week.

A year later, no signs of construction are visible within the tall chain-link fencing installed around the property.  

A banner on the auto garage building reads, “Getting closer … Your pizzeria, market & more …” but Weinstein declined to provide updates on where the project stands. 

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• Edgewood news, discussion (Urbanize Atlanta)