Fifteen years in the making, Atlanta’s largest park is finally making its debut. Atlanta Parks and Recreation announced this week that the long awaited park has scheduled its Grand Opening for Tuesday, August 17th at 10:00am. Located in Atlanta’s Rockdale neighborhood, the first phase of the park has been built around the decommissioned Bellwood Quarry for a reported cost of $44 million. The quarry has already been transformed into a new reservoir that holds 30 days worth (2.4 billion gallons) of emergency drinking water, which was completed in early 2021 for a cost of $321 million after five-years of construction.
The park has been under construction since 2018 but and has been in planning since approximately 2006, when the City of Atlanta bought the property from Fulton County after Vulcan Materials Company decided to end their lease early. The purchase was one of the first major land acquisition as part of the BeltLine project, and is now one of the last pieces of the puzzle to be set into place.
The park had originally been slated to open in 2020, but due to COVID-19, those plans were pushed back while construction continued. The first phase of the park was expected to cost $26 million, according to project consultant HGOR‘s website, however due to the delays, the park will debut a full $44 million of amenities on Tuesday. The timeline or cost of future phases has not been disclosed.
When completed, the park will be 280 acres – 100 acres larger than Atlanta’s current largest park, Piedmont Park – and will include miles of ADA accessible trails that will connect the Proctor Creek Greenway, the Chattahoochee River Corridor and the forthcoming Westside BeltLine Trail. On Tuesday, visitors will be treated the first 2.5 miles of those trails, as well as the first public look at large environmental sculptures and the “Grand Overlook” from a cliff over the quarry. The park will be accessible from the main gateway entrance off of West Marietta Street NW. For a closer look at the new facilities, the Atlanta Parks Department has released a video showing aerial footage of the Phase One facilities.
