First look: Westside Atlanta’s Huff Trail, a hive for city’s ‘growing creative class’

Now under construction, 8-acre project is consuming derelict building once slated to become the new Masquerade

By Josh Green@JoshGreen1234 Jun 27, 2017, 2:17pm EDT

The planned Huff Trail project in Atlanta. — The planned Huff Trail project.

Where plans to create a new Masquerade music venue faltered, an 8-acre commercial project “appealing to the needs of Atlanta’s growing creative class” is moving forward, developers tell Curbed Atlanta.

Kim King Associates is actively transforming and leasing a 100,000-square-foot project dubbed “Huff Trail” at 1429 Fairmont Ave., tucked off Huff Road on the Westside. It’ll offer creative, flexible offices and studio spaces along with art gardens, greenspace, and exhibit areas, per the developer.

Tenant slots range from 1,000 to 20,000 square feet, boasting high ceilings, “natural brick walls, [and] raw character” with a modern-industrial feel that echoes the neighborhood, officials said.

A future, northwestern arc of the Atlanta Beltline is planned to pass adjacent to the Huff Trail site. That trail segment has no definitive construction timeline.

A year ago, the Masquerade was preparing to move from its longtime Old Fourth Ward digs (currently being transformed into a mixed-use venture) into this very building. But a lawsuit filed by a builder of single-family homes next door essentially nixed those plans, and the Masquerade operates, for now, in Underground Atlanta.

Records indicate the warehouse property used to be occupied by ABI Distribution and may have been vacant for years, for the most part.

Project leaders plan to officially announce Huff Trail’s first slate of tenants next month.

Plans on the project’s website indicate a coffee shop, design studio, and large event space are in the works, for starters.

Here’s what to expect: