The Stitch, the project that would cap a stretch of the Downtown Connector with parkland and new street grid, has added two senior staffers to the team charged with getting it built. Atlanta Downtown Stitch Inc. announced this week that Lee Harrop joins as vice president of design and delivery and Caroline Ballard Leake as vice president of communications and development. Both roles report into the nine-member Stitch leadership group formed in January, and officials say the hires are meant to expand the project's capacity for design, delivery, fundraising and community engagement as it pushes toward shovel-ready status.
Harrop is the name downtown residents should recognize. He was the Atlanta Beltline's first program director and moved that project from early planning into design and construction — the exact transition the Stitch is trying to make now. He will lead the technical infrastructure and development work, per Stitch officials. Leake comes from the Georgia Department of Economic Development, where she was director of events and sponsorships, and previously worked with the administrations of Governors Brian Kemp and Zell Miller. Her brief is awareness, engagement and support, which in practice means fundraising and sponsorship for a project that still needs a great deal of both.
The timeline has moved. In January, project leaders expected shovel-ready status this summer. That is now projected for 2027. A retooled and smaller phase one was unveiled last October: a 5-acre park spanning the Connector plus eight miles of streetscape and transportation upgrades tying the capped area back into the rest of the city. Officials say $50 million is secured to carry the design phase forward and to help create The Stitch Special Assessment District, which the Atlanta City Council approved in spring 2025. That district taxes property owners inside its boundaries to cover the Stitch's operations, administration, maintenance and programming once it exists.
Outside downtown, Alpharetta's city council voted 4-3 Monday to rezone the North Point Mall site for a nearly 100-acre mixed-use district anchored by a 20,000-seat arena — a project that only happens if the NHL awards the city a franchise. Reporting from The Athletic puts Houston and Austin ahead for the league's 33rd team, with an announcement possible by the end of 2026; Atlanta and Phoenix are in less advanced talks for a 34th. The developers are Ponce City Market's Jamestown, mall owner New York Life and arena specialist Machete Group, with HKS Architects on master planning and Kimley-Horn on civil and traffic work.
The approved Alpharetta plan carries 1,385 residential units, all of them rentals despite council members' stated preference for for-sale housing; the AJC reports two of the five apartment buildings could reach 20 stories. Beyond the arena, the program includes a 4,000-seat music hall and performing arts center, a 2,000-seat community hockey rink, an 1,100-seat movie theater, two hotels totaling up to 650 rooms, a 35,000-square-foot hotel conference center, roughly 565,000 square feet of retail and dining, 750,000 square feet of offices and more than 20 acres of public parks, plazas and trails. Jamestown projects $2 billion in construction spending and more than 6,000 jobs, delivered in phases on a rolling basis.
Closer in, Ernst & Young formally opened its new Atlanta offices Monday at Portman's Ten Twenty Spring building, 1020 Spring St. in Midtown. The firm took floors 14 through 16 a year ago in a lease widely read as a win for high-end but empty Midtown office space. The finished space runs more than 102,000 square feet and includes a movie theater and game room. EY says its Atlanta roots date to the early 1920s and that the office's design and art reference city history and landmarks; roughly 3,000 employees are expected to move in this year.
Original reporting: Urbanize Atlanta (2026-08-25)
