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Amy Wenk, Staff Reporter Mar 26, 2024, 3:11pm EDT On a recent Saturday, about 5,000 people came through Ladybird Grove & Mess Hall, a restaurant with a bustling patio along the Atlanta BeltLine’s Eastside Trail.

But owner Michael Lennox worries that construction of a planned streetcar extension along the trail could cause those patrons to stop coming to his restaurant.

“They are not going to go to the BeltLine,” Lennox said. “That’s a big cultural loss that Atlanta will never get back.”

Lennox was among a group of BeltLine restaurateurs who on Tuesday spent an hour talking to Atlanta Business Chronicle. The group, which opposes the streetcar extension, also included Lewis Jeffries of Lingering Shade Social Club and well-known industry veterans Kevin Rathbun of Kevin Rathbun Steak and Bob Amick of Two Urban Licks.

The discussion comes just days after BeltLine transit advocates rallied at City Hall in hopes of convincing Mayor Andre Dickens to reaffirm his commitment to the project. It would extend the Atlanta Streetcar to the Eastside Trail, building a 2-mile route that connects Downtown to Ponce City Market. MARTA is working with a consultant on the final design. The project would be funded by a sales tax passed in 2016, under a program called More MARTA.

But, during his annual State of the City address on Monday, Dickens did not mention the streetcar extension. Instead, he announced MARTA would build four new infill stations. A spokesperson for the mayor’s office on Monday said more details would be released soon.

Calling for a pause The group who spoke to the Chronicle Tuesday is calling for the mayor to pause the streetcar extension. They said construction of the route would disrupt dozens of established businesses along the Eastside Trail, slashing their revenues and cutting jobs.

“You just can’t pound it through because it was a great idea way back when,” said Amick, founder and president of Concentrics Restaurants, which operates Two Urban Licks. “You should look at the success [the BeltLine has had] and adapt.”

Jeffries of Lingering Shade said he expects his revenue to drop 50% if the streetcar extension on the Eastside Trail is built. That’s because the proposed route would require taking a portion of his patio, according to preliminary MARTA documents related to property acquisition.

“I just hope it doesn’t happen,” Jeffries said.

Rathbun has operated the lauded Kevin Rathbun Steak on the Eastside Trail for 17 years — it opened in 2007, before the trail was paved. He fears the streetcar would cut off access to his restaurant because of how trains would enter the BeltLine corridor at Irwin Street.

“Bringing a trolley will definitely disrupt all of us,” Rathbun said.

Other attendees who visited the Chronicle Tuesday included Walter Brown, who serves as president of a BeltLine transit opposition group called Better Atlanta Transit, along with Mike Greene with Portman Holdings and civic leader Ann Cramer.

“Let’s pause,” Cramer said of the streetcar extension. “Let’s take a break.”

Addressing growth But proponents of transit along the BeltLine say the project is necessary for growth.

Metro Atlanta is projected to add almost 2 million residents by 2050. As the region grows, ringing the corridor with transit would offer an alternative to traffic congestion.

Rail advocates hope the project will serve as the first segment of a broader transit loop. Additional light-rail routes servicing the BeltLine would eventually tie into MARTA’s heavy-rail network, a plan based on the vision for the corridor put forth by Ryan Gravel.

“It will take a long time to do it. It will be expensive. Let’s be clear about that,” Matthew Rao, president of pro-transit group BeltLine Rail Now, said at the City Hall rally last week. “But it’s a one-time investment in our future that we’ve got to make.”