A big messy thing like the Beltline is 'in my sweet spot'

The Atlanta Beltline! It will transform the city! Spur development! Be a showpiece! Make us world-class!

At least that's the official spiel on the project. But does a 22-mile rail loop around the city really have that kind of power? For nearly three years, Terri Montague, president and CEO of Atlanta Beltline Inc., has been trying to make the Beltline a reality but has hit the sort of speed bumps a major public works project often does: funding, right of way issues and peeved neighborhood groups. She recently announced that she will step down Sept. 1 to become a consultant. Her first client will be the Beltline. Here, Montague, 44, talks about trains, tenacity and believing in something.

Q: When you accepted the Beltline job, what seemed most appealing about it, besides the six-figure salary?

A: Actually, I took a pay cut to come here, not an insignificant one. (Laughs) Atlanta's got some sleepy ways about it, but it also is very much a metropolitan area that aspires to be a gateway city. The Beltline, to me, represented a new paradigm of city building. It (is) this wonderful interdisciplinary venture that (is) going to transform Atlanta and help Atlanta live up to its own aspirations in a way that I don't think any of its other economic initiatives have.

Q: Are you an idealist? Because it sounds like you were seduced by the vision of the Beltline that was presented to you to get you to come here.

A: I am a serious pragmatist. I came knowing that is was going to be a very hard to do. But I take on big messy things like that. That's right in my sweet spot.

Q: Let's list just a few of the challenges you've faced: Wayne Mason, the investor with whom you had to orchestrate a complicated land deal; John Woodham, the attorney who held up the project for years with a Georgia Supreme Court challenge over using school tax money to help fund the project; a battle with neighborhood groups over right of way through a Civil War battlefield; a usage challenge by Amtrak and the DOT. Did you know what you were getting into when you took this job?

A: I knew it was going to be hard, but I didn't know that it was going to take two years for us to get our primary funding source, which is the bond funding. And when we were finally ready to sell the bonds, I didn't expect that the financial and the capital real estate markets would have collapsed. Nevertheless, the Beltline is happening.

Q: Your lowest point during your tenure was?

A: The Georgia Supreme Court ruling (that said school tax money couldn't be used for development that has nothing to do with schools). It took a little bit for it to sink in. I never really doubted that the project would happen, but I started to think in terms of a different time frame. This is a 25-year project. In 25 years, a lot of things are going to happen. And honestly, we've been tested in the early years.

Q: You've spoken before about having a very active spiritual life. So how often have you sought divine intercession for this project?

A: I was praying for all of my colleagues, all of the members of City Council, all of the members for Fulton County Commission, all of the leaders I work with and the project. And I've not ceased. In my praying and in my journaling.

Q: Journaling? How do you have time to journal?

A: Every day. It's a form of problem solving. That's just one way in which I have managed taking on large, complex, stressful roles. Artistry is another. There's a church over in Summerhill. A pastor there lets me come over on lunch times. Some Wednesdays I sneak out of here and play the piano and relax. And then I come back.

Q: You stayed in this job three years, a much shorter tenure than in your past positions in Boston and Baltimore. Was it all too much here? Is that why you're leaving?

A: I only know one speed: engaged until you're not engaged.

Q: OK, so did you have a moment when you were journaling, read it back and decided, "This Beltline situation is crazy, it'll never get built, I've got to get out"?

A: I got to a point when I said to myself, "We've got a record of accomplishment, gotten X percent of the work-plan done —- despite the setbacks —- but what's getting ready to change?" So I started looking at near-term changes that were going to occur: a turnover in my board that's about to happen, the mayor leaving. I've got one member who hasn't declared yet but they're planning to run for public office.

Q: Who? You're not being coy are you, and it's really you?

A: (Laughs) No, I said a member of the board. But I did weigh, "Where are we and what's next?" A smart leader will weigh that and listen carefully, and I did notice that I'd started to ask myself that question more often than I'd expected. So maybe it's time to move on.

Q: So you're leaving out of frustration?

A: No, no, no. This is doable. This is a huge project, but it is doable. The truth is, over 25 years, the Beltline will experience several leaders. I'm not running from anything, no one is driving me out. (But) three years of working under-resourced has a way of feeling much longer.

Q: Let's get existential for a moment: do you think the city has the will —- say the sort of will it took to win and prepare for the Olympics —- to actually see the Beltline through, with trains running?

A: I absolutely do see it. Our challenge is that everybody wants it all now, they want it yesterday.

Q: So, you really believe that you'll ride a Beltline train?

A: Absolutely. Atlanta's a city of big dreams.

Q: Will we both be pensioners by then?