At cusp of Piedmont Park, controversial storage facility roars ahead

By all indications, a Virginia-Highland project is moving forward that will create a controversial mini district of self-storage options at the cusp of both the Atlanta BeltLine’s Eastside Trail and Piedmont Park.

Demolition has recently brought down low-rise commercial buildings at 1011 Monroe Drive and 597 Cooledge Ave. that had most recently housed Cantoni Furniture and Illuminations Lighting.

National self-storage provider Public Storage plans to build a larger facility to replace those structures—a use that has drawn the ire of both BeltLine development arbiters and neighborhood leaders.

But exactly what that project might entail isn’t yet clear.

A competing business, ExtraSpace Storage, has long operated another self-storage facility next door on the same block, along Kanuga Street. That’s a few yards from where the BeltLine is expected to start overhauling the Eastside Trail’s Monroe Drive crossing and entry to Piedmont Park in coming weeks.

Public Storage has vacated its existing Westminster Drive facility on the other side of Piedmont Park as part of a deal that will allow Atlanta Botanical Garden to expand by 7 acres, once that storage facility is removed. ABG officials revealed in 2022 a land swap involving the former Cantoni property would mean that Public Storage would relocate to new facilities where Virginia-Highland meets the city’s marquee greenspace. When that might happen and what the project will entail is fuzzy.

ABG officials referred all questions to the Public Storage team building the new facility.

Jarrod Yates, Public Storage regional vice president of development, responded to inquiries this week with an email stating he’s “working on something to help the community better understand the project.” Asked on Thursday if that could be shared this week, Yates replied: “It will take much longer.” (Urbanize Atlanta was inadvertently copied on emails between Public Storage officials this week in which the project was referred to as a “hot potato.”)

Heads of neighborhood oversight group Virginia-Highland Civic Association did not respond to a request for more information this week.

Records show the City of Atlanta issued a demolition permit for the former Cantoni and Illuminations Lighting spaces in October.  

Drawings shared by Public Storage representatives in early 2023 with the Atlanta BeltLine Design Review Committee—following several design updates—could 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, ABG-themed mural on one wall.

The lack of retail space or residential uses such as townhomes, however, peeved BeltLine DRC members. They criticized the project in that incarnation as “a missed opportunity” and “a use that does not belong on the BeltLine or anywhere near it.” 

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