Housing remake of landmark downtown property scores funding boost

A sizable injection of affordable housing has moved a step closer to reality in a key downtown location at the doorstep of four major redevelopment efforts, spanning from Centennial Yards to Underground Atlanta and South Downtown.  

Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development arm, recently approved tax-exempt bond financing totaling more than $22 million to help get the second phase of the Folio House project off the ground. 

The two-phase Folio House venture—which includes an adaptive-reuse remake of the long-vacant Atlanta Constitution Building at 143 Alabama St.—broke ground in June. Ultimately, it’s envisioned as an anchor for formerly tired downtown blocks, a spring of residential life, and a conduit between Centennial Yards, Five Points, and Underground Atlanta.

The phase-two funding from Invest Atlanta will go toward ground-up construction of 149 affordable multifamily units next to the landmark Constitution Building, constituting nearly all of the mid-rise development. No rent cap in terms of Area Median Income levels for the planned apartments has been specified. 

Folio House’s initial phase calls for stabilizing and restoring the Constitution Building’s exterior, daylighting the ground-floor commercial space, and opening an adjacent outdoor fun zone called “The Pitch” in time for FIFA World Cup 2026 matches in June and July. 

Above that, following World Cup festivities, phase one will see upper floors of the Constitution Building remade into 50 affordable housing units, renting between 30 and 80 percent AMI, plus about 5,600 square feet of permanent commercial space. More than 190 affordable housing units are planned at Folio House overall, per Invest Atlanta. 

According to project architects Gensler, Folio House’s phase two is aiming for completion in 2028 as “a complementary residential building adjacent to the original.”

The tax-exempt bond award was part of more than a dozen transactions approved last week by the Invest Atlanta Board of Directors that could create more than 2,400 affordable housing units, spread across 10 of the city’s 12 council districts, per the agency. The projects are expected to bring more than $860 million in new capital investment to the city’s economy through new construction and building rehabilitation.

In October, the agency selected Wisconsin-based affordable housing developer Gorman & Company to take on the Constitution Building job and new construction next door. 

The Pitch facet will enliven the property with cultural events and art activations related to the World Cup. (A diagram included with Invest Atlanta paperwork shows a watch party screen, food trucks, DJ booth, kids play area, pavilion, and more positioned around the old building.) Other changes planned for the first phase call for the addition of digital signage. 

A rare example of Art Moderne-style architecture in the city, the original five-story, 95,000-square-foot structure was built in 1947 for the Atlanta Constitution newspaper, a predecessor to today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That operation departed the building after just a few years. 

Georgia Power moved in around 1953 but was gone in the early 1970s, leaving the property vacant ever since. In more recent years, metal shields were placed over windows to prevent encampments. At one point, trees sprouted from the roof. 

The new mid-rise apartment building next door would rise from a current parking lot along Ted Turner Drive, between Five Points and the under-construction Centennial Yards megaproject. 

Gorman has been on a building spree at sites 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 on the flipside of downtown, while another proposal near Mall West End has more recently entered the pipeline, among other endeavors. 

In the gallery above, find a closer look at plans for the downtown property's revitalization, both pre-World Cup and after. 

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