With 'trash mountain' finally gone, project launches near Southside Beltline

After an unpleasant and noisy process of sorting, piling, and removing garbage from a former landfill in the middle of southeast Atlanta neighborhoods, “trash mountain” is officially departed, clearing the way for more residential development betting on the Beltline’s allure. 

Towering and horrible, “trash mountain”—aka “Mount Rubbish”—required nearly three years of remediation efforts to properly truck away from a Boulevard Heights site at United, Avondale, and Lester avenues. 

According to Atlanta-based developer TPA Residential, the remediation process took longer than initially expected but is finally complete, allowing vertical construction to begin a few weeks ago on a project set to bring nearly 300 more living options to the area. 

Full construction is scheduled to continue throughout 2025, with delivery of the first units expected early next year. The project could be called “The Garrison”—a nod to a Georgia National Guard outpost near the site—but that hasn’t been finalized, a project official tells Urbanize Atlanta. 

The 1104 Avondale Ave. project is located less than two blocks from the Beltline’s under-construction Southside Trail sections and Grant Park.

According to paperwork filed with the city in 2023, TPA plans to start development with a single 212,000-square-foot building with 228 housing units. 

Beyond that mid-rise building, TPA’s scope calls for 63 rental townhomes in 10 structures situated closer to United Avenue, according to site plans. As required by zoning, a small retail space will be included in one corner of the multifamily building.

The 8.2-acre site in question was once home to a city-operated drinking water chlorination facility but had been a massive, abandoned landfill capped with fill-dirt for years. 

Officials have said roughly 150,000 yards of garbage had to be removed before the site could be ready for construction. Two previous development efforts by other companies at the site sputtered and ultimately pulled out.

The Development Authority of Fulton County approved a $3.7-million tax abatement for TPA to help with cleaning up the site in 2022. The development was also approved for the Brownfield Tax Credit Program for “the voluntary cleanup and redevelopment of an environmentally contaminated site,” per TPA’s project website. 

Remediation and removal of the landfill reportedly cost $7 million, and TPA plans to spend another $1 million building a Beltline connection with lighting and landscaping.

Fifteen percent of the apartments and townhomes will be reserved as affordable housing, as required by Beltline inclusionary housing rules, per TPA’s plans. Prior to remediation delays, earlier schedules had called for delivering the first units in spring or summer 2024. 

TPA’s plans for the apartments (ranging from studios up to three-bedroom options) call for 43 units to be reserved for tenants earning 80 percent of the area median income or less, according to earlier filings.

The Avondale Avenue project joins other pockets of recent development near the southeastern-most Beltline corridor, where construction on the next 1.2-mile stretch of the Southside Trail began in June 2023. (Following delays, that part of the Beltline is scheduled to open sometime this fall.) 

Empire Communities’ the Swift, a large townhome project with 120 units, claimed another vacant parcel next door several years ago.

Down the street, TPA also built a 275-unit project called The Penman on 6 acres that directly front the Beltline, near the Southside Trail’s intersection with Boulevard. About 7,000 square feet of adaptive-reuse retail space was included in that project, too. 

Swing up to the gallery for more images and context. 

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