A long-vacant, graffiti-covered building at 1075 Boulevard SE in Chosewood Park is finally getting a second act, sitting just a few yards from the Atlanta Beltline's recently completed Southside Trail. The two-story wedge-shaped structure, once nicknamed the do nothing building, has sat empty for years next door east of Boulevard Heights and just south of Grant Park. Now the Atlanta Department of City Planning has approved a special administrative permit that clears the way for its transformation into neighborhood commercial space.
The project comes from Under New Management, the development firm led by veteran intown developer Saba Loghman, who also serves as an advisor to Empire Communities and formerly worked as an executive there, according to Urbanize Atlanta. Under New Management owns the masonry building and will act as both developer and builder on the conversion, which will carve out roughly 5,000 square feet of space for two tenants across the two levels. Plans call for patios on both floors once core-and-shell improvements wrap up, with the project designed by Line + Angle Architecture.
The building's past use was notably different from its retail future: the site formerly housed a now-outlawed spectator sport, per the same report. Fulton County property records cited by the outlet show the property last traded for just $10,000 in 2018 before selling again for $202,500 in August 2024, a jump that reflects the surging land values along the Beltline corridor. Under New Management is actively pre-leasing the space now, and Loghman has said he expects tenants to move in next year.
A Developer Already Building Across the Corridor
This isn't Loghman's only project reshaping Chosewood Park. Under New Management is also constructing a mixed-use Kirkwood townhome project with a warehouse component across the street from Pullman Yards, an adaptive reuse of a 1947 industrial building that Hoodline covered in its piece on the old Kirkwood warehouse escaping demolition. Separately, the firm has unveiled Downtown Chosewood, a 15-building complex planned for vacant acreage off the Southside Trail featuring seven commercial storefronts and nine live-work rental units, positioning Loghman as one of the most active small-scale commercial builders in the neighborhood.
Infrastructure Catching Up With the Trail
The retail conversion arrives as public infrastructure around it accelerates. The Southside Trail's newly opened Segments 2 and 3 completed a continuous 17-mile paved loop nicknamed “the U,” connecting 36 intown neighborhoods, with the full 22-mile Beltline loop targeted for buildout by 2030. Running directly past the property, the city's $9.14 million South Boulevard Safe Street project, which broke ground in October 2025, is rebuilding 2.4 miles of Boulevard through Chosewood Park with protected bike lanes, upgraded sidewalks, and buffer parking, as Hoodline reported in its story on Grant Park's new street parking. That overhaul is expected to be complete by June 2027.
The pace of residential growth nearby has been just as dramatic. Atlanta Housing and The Benoit Group closed financing in 2024 for Englewood Senior, a $72-million, 160-unit affordable project that launched the 30-acre Englewood South master plan, and Atlanta Housing solicited proposals this past April for a second phase adding roughly 500 more mixed-income units, a pipeline Hoodline detailed in its coverage of the final Beltline parcels going into play. Kaplan Residential and Origin Investments separately acquired 40 acres nearby to build more than 2,000 housing units and 150,000 square feet of commercial space, part of what Loghman has described as over 4,000 total housing units now active or planned across Chosewood Park.
Public Amenities Still Lag Behind
Not everything has kept pace with the private development boom. Atlanta Beltline, Inc. opened Phase I of Boulevard Crossing Park, a 5-acre greenspace at Boulevard and Englewood Avenue, back in 2011, and while the agency has designed a Phase II expansion that would grow the park to 25 acres with a dog park, community garden, and splash pad, that expansion remains unfunded. A separate 6-acre stormwater pond and park network, completed in late 2024 and designed by landscape architecture firm HGOR, has already connected Chosewood Park to the Southside Trail and Boulevard Crossing Park, but the larger park expansion's timeline stays an open question for the corridor.
The 1075 Boulevard SE conversion also fits a broader pattern of industrial buildings finding new commercial life along the trail. In nearby Peoplestown, developer Stafford Properties is converting two former warehouses into Terminal South, a 45,625-square-foot food hall and retail complex where The Nest Nursery School is set to relocate in early 2027, according to Hoodline's report on Terminal South's new preschool and eatery. Whether 1075 Boulevard SE lands similar retail tenants remains to be seen, but with pre-leasing underway and a 2027 move-in target, the building's decades of vacancy look to be numbered.
