As another Atlanta multimodal transportation and pedestrian safety project revs up, the head of a Blandtown incubator hub is sharing an opinion he feels should be more common: Growing pains are part of a growing city—and they’ll ultimately be worth it. 

Eric Rubin, a real estate broker and investor with Rubin Realty Group, is property manager for a stack of West Midtown shipping-container suites at 1130 Chattahoochee Ave. designed to be a launchpad for small businesses. 

At the container village’s doorstep, along the southern side of Chattahoochee Avenue, Rubin said his entrepreneurial tenants are bracing for a potential 15 months of business disruptions, beginning in December. That’s where Atlanta Department of Transportation is building a multi-use pathway designed as a safer, more accessible route for pedestrians, cyclists, and other non-motorists between The Works district and Howell Mill Road, where a Complete Streets overhaul is ongoing.  

The forthcoming, 10-foot-wide pathway will cut directly in front of the container village, putting it “dead-center in the impact zone,” according to Rubin. But instead of fighting or dreading change, the dozens of proprietors behind local boutique retail shops, creative services, and other businesses onsite have reached out to project designers ATLDOT and the Upper Westside Community Improvement District to offer “full cooperation” as the multi-use project moves forward, said Rubin. 

“Our goal is to show how a local business hub can constructively navigate major public infrastructure upgrades even when it means managing heavy grading, temporary parking shifts, and tree removals right at our doorstep,” Rubin wrote to Urbanize Atlanta via email. 

Overview of the 24 shipping container units today and where ATLDOT's Chattahoochee Avenue Sidewalk Installation project is planned. Courtesy of Rubin Realty Group

Overview of the 1130 Chattahoochee Ave. container hub at the northern fringe of Blandtown, west of Midtown. Google Maps

Rubin and his tenants understand the big-picture positives of the Chattahoochee Avenue project, he said, in that it will “eventually pipe foot traffic to and from Topgolf [Atlanta-Midtown], The Works, and the Silver Comet network,” right past the incubator hub.

The shipping-container village today includes 24 units (each about 320 square feet with a separate entrance, private restroom, and patio and balcony) alongside a 1,600-square-foot standalone building. 

Courtesy of Rubin Realty Group

Inside two sample incubator spaces at the container village along Chattahoochee Avenue today. Courtesy of Rubin Realty Group

According to the Upper Westside CID, the “Beltline-style” concrete pathway—a key component of the Upper Westside Master Plan completed in 2021—will start to the west at Southland Circle, where the connective and scenic Woodall Rail Trail was completed last year. 

ATLDOT estimates construction will start in mid-December and wrap in March 2028. 

It’s all food for thought, in a growing city that’s fundamentally changing in so many places. 

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