Another BeltLine-adjacent apartment project is moving forward in Southeast Atlanta to replace a giant mound of excavated landfill trash that’s been a source of bemused infamy among neighbors.
Atlanta-based developer TPA Residential has filed for permits to begin vertical construction of a multifamily building at 1104 Avondale Avenue in Boulevard Heights, less than two blocks from the BeltLine’s Southside Trail and Grant Park.
Fronting United Avenue, the 8.2-acre site had been a massive, abandoned landfill capped with fill-dirt for years. A source close to the project told Urbanize Atlanta last summer roughly 150,000 yards of garbage had to be removed before the site was ready for construction—and thus, Mount Rubbish.
Two previous development efforts on the site sputtered and quit.
The tremendous mound of excavated landfill trash where United Avenue meets Lester Avenue, as seen in January. Google Maps
According to paperwork filed with the city last week, TPA plans to start development with a single 212,000-square-foot building with 228 housing units. (That’s an uptick from 215 apartments outlined in previous plans.)
Beyond that mid-rise building, TPA expects to build 63 rental townhomes spread around 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.
Renderings indicate the multifamily building could be called United Apartments.
A rendering for the 1104 Avondale Ave. project's multifamily portion submitted to the city last summer. TPA Residential
The current site plan, with Empire Communities' existing Swift townhomes depicted at left, and United Avenue at right. TPA Residential
The Development Authority of Fulton County approved a $3.7-million tax abatement for TPA to help with cleaning up the site last year. The development has been approved for the Brownfield Tax Credit Program for “the voluntary cleanup and redevelopment of an environmentally contaminated site,” per TPA’s project website.
TPA closed on the site’s purchase in June last year and was quickly granted a city permit to begin remediation and environmental cleanup. The property was also once home to a city-operated drinking water chlorination facility.
Remediation and removal of the landfill will 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. As of last year, the first units were expected to deliver in spring or summer 2024, but that timeline may have changed. TPA didn’t respond to an email inquiry regarding a project update this week.
As of last year, TPA’s plans for the apartments (ranging from studios up to three-bedrooms) called for 43 units to be reserved for tenants earning 80 percent of the area median income or less.
Exterior plans for the rental townhomes. TPA Residential
The Avondale Avenue project joins a flurry of recent development in that pocket of the BeltLine corridor, where construction on the next 1.2-mile stretch of the Southside Trail began in June.
Empire Communities’ the Swift, a sprawling townhome project with 120 units, claimed a large vacant parcel next door.
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 is planned in that project.
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