A multifamily complex with hundreds of housing units is moving forward in Southwest Atlanta just as the freshest BeltLine segment in that part of town finishes construction.

On the site of a long-vacant car battery factory abutting the BeltLine’s Southside Trail, RangeWater Real Estate plans to build 325 apartments spread across three buildings, alongside a clubhouse and dog park.

The 8.5-acre property is in Capitol View, just west of Metropolitan Parkway on Allene Avenue.

For RangeWater (formerly Pollack Shores Real Estate Group), the project will mark the third major investment along the interim Southside Trail corridor, following a 319-unit complex near The Beacon in Chosewood Park and the immense Maverick project in Peoplestown.

How the ham-hock-shaped site would abut the BeltLine, as seen prior to recent construction of the Southside Trail's initial segment. The existing Westside Trail is shown at top left. Google Maps

According to the project’s construction team, Cambridge Builders and Contractors, the Capitol View project is set to break ground soon in the “premier location” and deliver in late 2022.

Demolition permits were issued last week to bring down a large industrial building on site, according to city permitting records.

The property operated for nearly four decades as Exide Technologies battery manufacturing plant before shuttering in 1988. An LLC called Allene Avenue Redevelopment purchased the 8.5 acres in 2006 for $175,000, per city property records. That group has been working with city, state, and federal government authorities to ensure toxic materials spewed from the battery factory were sufficiently cleaned up before a sale to the developer was finalized, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

What RangeWater is paying for the site has yet to be logged in public records.  

Neighborhood groups around Capitol View have raised concerns about traffic from RangeWater’s project overburdening quiet streets—and that the company’s intentions to bake in the minimum amount of affordable housing required by zoning policies won’t be sufficient in the historically low-income area.  

Wider view of facades planned for Capitol View. RangeWater Real Estate

In March, RangeWater’s managing director, Joseph Martinez, told Atlanta Civic Circle that four meetings with the Capitol View Neighborhood Association and government officials prompted the company to make changes. Those have included reducing building heights on residential Allene Avenue, increasing neighborhood connectivity and greenspace, improving building materials, and reducing surface parking, in addition to “steps to alleviate traffic.”

RangeWater intends to reserve 50 units as affordable housing for families earning 80 percent of the area median income, as ACC reported.

As with condo builds and other apartment ventures along the Southside Trail, developers are betting that beachfront proximity to the BeltLine will be enticing. 

Looking west toward Allene Avenue in April 2021, prior to the factory's demolition, the RangeWater development site is seen at top left, with the Southside Trail's Segment 1 construction at center. Astra Group, via Atlanta BeltLine Inc.

According to Atlanta BeltLine officials, the initial section of the Southside Trail—the .8-mile Segment 1 now paved alongside the RangeWater site—is on track to open later this summer.

That project will extend the paved portion in Southwest Atlanta from the Westside Trail’s current terminus in Adair Park around to an endpoint near the Interstate 75/85 Connector. A grand opening announcement is in the works.  

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