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What should become of this massive swath of Atlanta railroad property?

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Colliers International is marketing a nearly 300-acre site that could become, well, just about anything

a picture showing some of the massive plot
The colossal gap.
Screenshot, via YouTube

Colliers International Atlanta appears to be ramping up its marketing efforts for a colossal expanse of old CSX railroad land in West Midtown that’s 100 acres larger than Piedmont Park.

A new flyover video posted this month by CSX’s real estate advisor shows exactly what’s on the table.

The video provides a sense of the potential of the nearly 300-acre site, which sits west of Marietta Boulevard and shoots north toward Cobb County. But it lends few—if any—clues about what it could possibly become.

When CSX hired Colliers back in April, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist suggested the land, a six-decade-old railroad terminal called Tilford Yard, could be used to build more apartments and houses in the already residential area.

Around that same time, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported the mega-site could evolve into a major mixed-use development.

It’s hard to imagine that the plot could become another park, since the 280-acre Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry is under construction just south of Tilford Yard. And because parks generally don’t make money.

But considering the site’s proximity to the Beltline-to-be, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a link from Tilford Yard to the multi-use trail with some new green space of its own.

And then there’s the prospect that the ABC has lobbed—perhaps farfetched, perhaps not—of the land being used for a MARTA rail extension to Cobb County.

That, of course, would require the suburban county to welcome mass transit.