Plans are coming together for the conversion of a dated, budget motel into fully affordable housing in one of intown Atlanta’s hottest BeltLine neighborhoods.

Stryant Construction officials expect to close on the purchase this month of the Atlanta Motel at 277 Moreland Avenue, a 1960s low-rise property where rooms are said to go for $50 per night and most reviews have been anything but flattering. Calls to a number listed for the hotel today were not answered. 

Stan Sugarman, Stryant managing partner, said his company is partnering with Atlanta Housing, Invest Atlanta, Partners for Home, and Atlanta Affordable Housing Fund, along with supportive BeltLine and city officials, to restore the Atlanta Motel as 54 units of affordable housing where Moreland Avenue meets Interstate 20.

Reynoldstown neighborhood leadership and three different NPUs, or Neighborhood Planning Units, have also been supportive of the project so far, Sugarman said.  

The Atlanta Motel property in Reynoldstown, as seen in March 2022.Google Maps

Terminus Design Group

Each of the 54 apartments will be targeted at people who’ve been unhoused and are making less than 30 percent of the area’s median income. Rents and utility costs combined will be capped at 30 percent of each renter’s income, said Sugarman.

“The construction start date is dependent on permits and HUD approvals,” Sugarman noted via email today.

City records indicate the .75-acre property last sold in 1997 for $1.06 million.

Plans also call for installing a social worker’s office onsite and configuring at least six of the units to be ADA compliant, with the rest designed to meet Fair Housing Guidelines, according to Chris Hunkele, a principal with Terminus Design Group, the project’s architect of record.  

The exterior of the motel building will receive a facelift—fresh paint, windows, doors, amenity areas, and more—with a goal of improving its visibility from both Moreland Avenue and I-20. Interiors will be renovated to the bones and outfitted with “modern, multifamily finishes consistent with the market-rate deals we’re used to seeing in the area,” Hunkele noted in an email.

The project's location at the northwest quadrant of the Moreland Avenue/Interstate 20 intersection. Google Maps

“I know this project was favorably received by the [Atlanta] City Council and Mayor [Andre Dickens], and is just one small piece of the new administration’s plan to provide more affordable housing in our community,” Hunkele said. “It could also be an anchor in the beautification of that stretch of Moreland as you head into East Atlanta.”

Head up to the gallery for a closer look. 

• Recent Reynoldstown news, discussion (Urbanize Atlanta)