New Atlanta Beltline leader chosen

By Leon Stafford

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

After helping Atlantic Station become one of the city’s most talked about developments, Brian Leary is taking on another high profile assignment.

Leary has been named chief executive officer and president of Atlanta Beltline Inc., the organization trying to create a 22-mile ring of parks, transit and trails along railroad tracks in the heart of the city.

“The Beltline is one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that I lobbied hard for,” said Leary, who will take the post sometime in mid-October.

Leary replaces Terri Montague, who left the Beltline earlier this month after more than three years at the helm.

“Brian brings the right combination of technical experience, development success and community engagement for what the Beltline needs as it enters the next chapter of its evolution,” Beltline chairman Cal Darden said in a statement.

Michael Koblentz, chairman of the Northwest Community Alliance, said Leary is “someone with vision, smarts, charisma, and has a great connection to the neighborhoods and to business.”

Leary has been with Atlantic Station for the past 12 years. The redevelopment of the former steel mill into a shopping, dining and living district in Midtown has been lauded nationally as a example of brownfield rebirth.

The Beltline will offer Leary new brownfield to develop. About 1,100 of the Beltline’s 6,500 acres is in industrial areas that have been abandoned or underused and may require clean up of contaminated wastes.

Leary said he is confident he can bring in the retail, residential and commercial business as he did at Atlantic Station. After all, he convinced a lot of skeptics to locate at what once was one of the city’s biggest eyesores.

“That took a lot of work and that took a lot of skill,” he said.