Fresh renderings: Next downtown ATL residential tower moves forward

A growth spurt appears to be in the making for the heart of downtown Atlanta, but not near Centennial Yards this time. 

Gorman & Company, a Wisconsin-based developer that specializes in building affordable housing, has filed for land disturbance permits to start work on “The Sanctuary,” a $41-million remake of Trinity United Methodist Church’s historic campus across the street from Atlanta City Hall.

Gorman plans to restore and convert Trinity UMC at 265 Washington St. into a denser campus of residential units and flexible space for events, in partnership with the church. 

According to filings made Wednesday with Atlanta’s Department of City Planning, Gorman’s plans have been revised for a second time. They now call for a 15-story tower (one level shorter than earlier designs) to replace the church’s classroom and fellowship hall wing but preserve its original façade. 

The 83-unit new building also appears more traditional than earlier designs, according to new visuals submitted to the city. 

Filings this week also indicate that an unspecified amount of retail will be included in new construction. 

We asked Gorman reps Wednesday for more details and a construction timeline and will update this story with any additional information that comes. 

Plans call for the ministry and community events to continue on site. The church has served as a downtown cornerstone for more than a century, but recent years have seen the congregation shrink as the main sanctuary building fell into disrepair.  

A groundbreaking at The Sanctuary would spell a flurry of construction activity in one of downtown’s oldest sections. 

Directly to the west, 10-story mixed-use project Trinity Central Flats is under construction now, also across the street from Atlanta City Hall. Plans there call for 218 apartments (most of them reserved as affordable housing) and 7,500 square feet of retail at ground level. 

Next door, The Sanctuary project will restore the church’s sanctuary and add six more residential units and shared residential space. The Trinity Women’s Center, a low-barrier shelter for women and children experiencing homelessness, will continue to operate on the property, per Gorman. 

Amenities around the complex would include a fitness center, clubhouse, business center, and picnic pavilion, according to Invest Atlanta, which approved $2 million in Eastside Tax Allocation District funding in 2024 to support the adaptive-reuse venture.

According to the church, the Gothic structure where Trinity Avenue meets Washington Street was designed by prominent architect Walter T. Downing and opened in 1912. Its sanctuary still includes a towering Austin Organ that, according to church leadership, is the oldest remaining pipe organ in the city. 

The new residential building—depicted in an earlier rendering as a contemporary, darkly colored structure—would include 83 mixed-income units with rents ranging from 30 to 80 percent of the Area Median Income.

Gorman officials told Urbanize Atlanta in August The Sanctuary project was on pace to break ground this spring. 

Construction is expected to take 18 months, with completion roughly scheduled for late 2027, officials previously said. 

According to a 2024 Invest Atlanta rundown, rents at the church project would start at $495 monthly for one-bedroom apartments with 570 square feet capped at 30 percent AMI. (The market-rate price for that floorplan will be $1,700.) Meanwhile, the highest rents for units deemed affordable will be two-bedroom options with 850 square feet, asking $1,752 monthly at 80 percent AMI.

Gorman has been on a building spree around Atlanta in recent years, debuting its first project in Westview and another near MARTA’s Hamilton E. Holmes station in 2024. Another Gorman development with an adaptive-reuse component, Sweet Auburn Grande, is fully under construction downtown, while another proposal near Mall West End has more recently entered the pipeline. 

The company is also remaking downtown landmark Atlanta Constitution Building into a two-phase project called Folio House, with part of that scheduled to open before 2026 FIFA World Cup hoopla in June. 

Find more context (and a peek at how the project has changed since 2024) in the gallery above. 

[UPDATE: 3:41 p.m., March 5: Gorman & Company reps send word this afternoon that construction on The Sanctuary is now scheduled to begin sometime this summer. An additional rendering is below, as seen from street level.]

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