A controversial Virginia-Highland project has taken shape with sweeping views across Piedmont Park, the Beltline corridor, and Midtown’s skyline—but with minimal windows for enjoying the scenery. 

The self-storage facility project at the doorstep of two marquee, walkable intown attractions, the Beltline’s Eastside/Northeast trails and Piedmont Park, has reached its maximum height of five stories, according to building plans and a recent site visit. 

Two low-rise commercial buildings were demolished at the site last year (1011 Monroe Drive and 597 Cooledge Ave.) that had most recently housed Cantoni Furniture and Illuminations Lighting. The high-profile corner is located a few yards from where the Beltline’s popular Eastside Trail and new Northeast Trail section link to each other with an expanded, improved pedestrian crossing at Monroe Drive.  

Public Storage, a national self-storage provider, is building a larger facility to replace those structures. That use has drawn the ire of both neighborhood leaders and Beltline development arbiters. 

The company hasn’t clarified exactly what it’s building, or when it plans to deliver, despite repeated requests for more information throughout most of 2024. Inquiries this week to Public Storage officials have also not been returned. 

How the Public Storage project relates to the recently enhanced Atlanta Beltline pedestrian crosswalk at Monroe Drive. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Public Storage/Atlanta BeltLine DRC

The construction timeline is important to parts of Atlanta beyond the Monroe Drive site. 

On the flipside of Piedmont Park, the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s $150-million expansion project hinges on the Public Storage facility project being finished and open.

The Garden’s 8-acre expansion will consume adjacent land where Public Storage has operated for years. In exchange, the Garden is swapping the Monroe Drive property, which it bought for $13.5 million in 2023, with Public Storage, so the company can maintain a presence in the area.

The Botanical Garden also bought Public Storage’s facility on Piedmont Avenue, immediately north of the current gardens, for a reported $40 million.

Drawings shared by Public Storage representatives in early 2023 with the Atlanta Beltline Design Review Committee—following several design updates—lend an idea what’s in store for the intown corner. 

According to those plans, the self-storage project would include office space (and bike racks) with a large, Botanical Garden-themed mural on one wall.

The lack of retail space or residential uses such as townhomes peeved Beltline DRC members during planning stages in 2023. They criticized the project as presented as “a missed opportunity” and “a use that does not belong on the Beltline or anywhere near it.” 

Building permits indicate the self-storage facility will stand five stories—its height today. A competing business, Extra Space Storage, has long operated another self-storage facility next door on the same block, along Kanuga Street.

The project's northern face along Cooledge Avenue. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Proximity of the Self Storage site (in red) to the Eastside Trail, Piedmont Park, and Extra Space Storage immediately to the south. Google Maps

Botanical Garden officials told Urbanize Atlanta in November they hope to break ground on the expansion in late 2025, with completion sometime in 2027. But that’s all contingent on Public Storage relinquishing their current building on the Garden’s expansion site. 

Head up to the gallery for more context and photos showing how the Va-Hi self-storage build relates to Monroe Drive and the Beltline today. 

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• Virginia-Highland news, discussion (Urbanize Atlanta)