Fresh renderings: Big changes in store for Old Fourth Ward corner

The design-build team reshaping a prominent corner of Old Fourth Ward near a popular park and Ponce City Market has shed light on what to expect from pricing, design, and other standpoints. 

As relayed on these pages earlier this week, foundations were recently poured for three standalone homes at the cleared southeast corner of Fortune Street at Ralph McGill Boulevard, where a boarded-up home had stood for years. 

Senya Zaitsev, head of multifamily and single-family design-build firm Sunny Etc., has now shared project renderings and other details illustrating what’s to come at the site, which is also near investment magnets Historic Fourth Ward Park and the Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside Trail. 

Zaitsev said his firm had originally planned for a more “missing middle” approach on the corner that would have seen less expensive housing options. Specifically, designs called for a three-story multifamily building with 12 units and an affordability component, allowable under the City of Atlanta’s zoning typology MR-MU, for missing middle, passed in 2019. The intent, he said, was to echo apartments and townhomes in nearby blocks. 

“Unfortunately, nearby single-family owners opposed that plan back in 2021, so it was scaled down to three single-family homes,” Zaitsev wrote via email. “Interestingly, many of those same neighbors have since sold their homes.”

Now, site plans call for three standalone modern houses—each with four bedrooms, plus a study, and three and ½ bathrooms—beneath rooftop hangouts with city views that are rated for hot tubs, per Zaitsev. 

Additional features will include lock-off suites, elevator infrastructure, small yards, decks off living areas, and two-car garages accessible from behind the homes. 

Based on current market conditions, Zaitsev said he expects the houses to list in the $1.4-million range each, citing a new, larger modern-style house that fetched north of $1.7 million a few doors down last month. 

“We are also considering listing these for pre-sale so that potential buyers can customize the interior finishes,” he noted. “Hopefully, these will be finished before the World Cup extravaganza.”

Permitting records indicate the houses will total just over 2,200 square feet each. [UPDATE: 5:48 p.m., Nov. 12: Builders say square footages will clock in at roughly 2,700 square feet of heated space.] 

The Fortune Street location counts a “Very Walkable” Walk Score of 83/100 and equally strong Bike Score (83), while the Transit Score (51) ranks as merely “Good Transit.” 

Elsewhere in the neighborhood, Sunny Etc. built the Winton Flats project in 2023, which was described as Atlanta’s original “missing middle” housing concept. 

Their portfolio also includes modern townhomes in Mechanicsville, the Metro Ville project, that took shape and sold out seven years ago, among other projects. 

Swing up to the gallery for more images and context.  

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