CAP’s Stitch project moving forward as Connector park in Midtown put on hold

Three proposals to cap over Atlanta’s highways — the Stitch, the Connector and HUB404 — are now down to two.

With Chick-fil-A Chairman Dan Cathy recently announcing a pause on plans to build the Atlanta Connector Park, the spotlight now is shining brightly on the Stitch — a project to bridge over the Downtown Connector.

The Stitch already has secured $200 million to complete its first phase — a 4-acre park over the Connector from Peachtree Street to Courtland. The Stitch is a project being championed by Central Atlanta Progress and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District.

When asked what impact Cathy’s pause will have on the Stitch, CAP President A.J. Robinson answered: “No impact. In the first phase of this project, we have identified all the money we need to start construction in mid-2026.” 

The Stitch’s future was secured in March 2024 when the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded the project $157.6 million for the construction of the first phase. It now has a total of more than $202 million to invest in the project. The first phase is scheduled to be completed in 2030.

“I’m not casting shade on Mr. Cathy, but we have been at this for a long time,” Robinson said. “We have been dedicated to this project for over 20 years. We tried to tell a story of why this project was important. It seemed to make a whole lot of sense to all levels of government — city, state and especially the federal government. It’s a historic opportunity to reconnect communities that were both degraded and, in some cases, destroyed. It’s an opportunity to right a wrong.”

Jack Cebe, development manager of the Stitch, originally worked on the Connector project when he was with the Arcadis design consulting firm. He joined the Stitch a little more than two years ago.

“From a narrative standpoint, the case for the Stitch is strong,” Cebe said. “It was a really exciting opportunity for me.”

Doug Hooker, who was hired by Cathy to become CEO of the Atlanta Connector Park Foundation Inc. in February 2023, spoke highly of the progress the Stitch has made.

 “First of all, I want to compliment A.J. Robinson and Jack Cebe on doing a wonderful job of being patient and persistent in bringing the public along in helping shape the concept of what the Stitch will look like,” Hooker said in a phone interview on July 29. “They have done a capable job of developing relationships and friendships to support the Stitch federally, at the state and locally.”

Hooker said CAP and ADID have had a long track record in building partnerships. When Hooker was executive director of the Atlanta Regional Commission, he said CAP had developed relationships with ARC, the Department of Transportation and the city “to build a collective vision for the project.”

When the Connector project was put on hold, the major reason cited was a lack of a public entity to champion the vision Cathy had.

Now the momentum clearly seems to be in favor of the Stitch. In addition to Phase 1, two other phases are planned. The total 14-acre project is expected to cost between $720 million to $750 million complete, which CAP envisions would be in 2036. 

Cebe said the first phase includes eight miles of street improvements, including sidewalks, bike lanes and street trees all aimed at improving the pedestrian experience on Peachtree.

The building of the Downtown Connector and other urban renewal projects in the 1960s displaced an estimated 24,000 people from the majority-Black neighborhoods of Buttermilk Bottoms and Butler Street. It also divided neighborhoods from the east side of downtown from the city’s core.

“If not for the highway, the area of the Stitch and the three to four blocks around it would be a really lively commercial and residential community,” Robinson said. “Having 300,000 cars passing under it every day, the area on top is not livable.”

As Robinson sees it, the Stitch also will help connect downtown with Midtown. Back in the 1970s, Central Atlanta Progress helped birth what is now the Midtown Alliance to help bring economic vitality to a struggling commercial corridor. That was then. Today, Midtown has emerged as one of the hottest markets in the Atlanta region. 

“We have the ability to replace empty parking lots with affordable housing and street-level retail,” Robinson said. “It will give us a way to connect the economic vitality of Midtown with downtown. Midtown is doing much better than downtown right now.”

Although CAP and ADID are leading the effort for the Stitch, the project will be a public asset with parks and greenspace. 

“At the end of the day, the City of Atlanta is the owner of the Stitch,” Cebe said. “We could not do the Stitch without the city’s involvement.”

But the real vision for the Stitch will be the economic development that will take place on the privately owned property surrounding the public space. It will become even more significant when the second phase is built, which would connect into the Civic Center MARTA Station.

“There are major property owners around there,” Cebe said. “A lot are community driven.”

Meanwhile, there’s no pause in the HUB404 project, according to Jim Durrett, executive director of the Buckhead Community Improvement District. 

“We are absolutely going forward,” Durrett said.

The focus, however, has shifted away from its earlier vision of creating a ribbon of parks over Georgia 400 to the Lenox Road Complete Safe Street.

Section 1 is envisioned to be Lenox Boardwalk, a new urban linear park from the Lenox MARTA Station to Peachtree Road. The second section would enhance pedestrian amenities from Peachtree along Lenox to Phipps Boulevard. The third section would improve connectivity and pedestrian safety at the Lenox Road/Georgia 400 Interchange by building an elevated pedestrian and bicycle bridge, which would become the gateway to HUB404.

Durrett said the requests for qualifications for a design firm will go out in August with hopes of selecting an entity in September.

With the pause of the Connector, Durrett said it makes HUB404 more real. Although the Stitch and HUB404 could compete for philanthropic funding, Durrett downplayed the competition between both projects.

“The Stitch is in a completely different part of Atlanta,” Durrett said. “What the two projects have in common is creating open space where the community can gather. The more places where people can gather, the more thriving and vibrant those communities will be.”