Near Pullman Yards, five-story, two-bedroom rentals pop up

More than four years after it was initially announced, a pocket of Edgewood multifamily units with unique floorplans has topped out all nine of its buildings and stepped up its leasing push.

Located where Edgewood meets Kirkwood, about a block west of the Pullman Yards food and entertainment district, the LaFrance Square project is being marketed as “Atlanta’s premiere, for-lease, luxury townhome and condo community.”

Formerly home to a warehouse, which was demolished in 2019, the site is positioned a little less than a mile from MARTA’s Edgewood-Candler Park station, where its namesake LaFrance Street meets Arizona Avenue.

Updated site plan for LaFrance Square showing rentals currently on the market (in orange and green) and final buildings under construction now. LaFrance Square

How buildings at LaFrance Square's northeastern corner have come together in recent months where LaFrance Street meets Arizona Avenue. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

According to developer The Ardent Companies, LaFrance Square will include 102 units when finished. The allure, according to the project’s marketing team, is residences large enough to offer “the privacy and comfort of owning a home” but with “all the flexibility and convenience of leasing.”

The 34 available rental options at LaFrance Square start at $2,838 monthly, promising the convenience of living on “the Central Eastside” amidst “the buzz of Kirkwood.”

That rents a two-bedroom, two and ½-bathroom floorplan called the Oakford with 1,661 square feet—spread across a whopping five stories, including the rooftop terrace. (Note: Only one unit is offered at that price now; 22 others with the same floorplan cost $3,450 monthly. Two months of free rent is being dangled as an incentive for some units.)

Here's a quick breakdown of the five-story Oakford floorplans:

The base level of the smallest LaFrance Square units currently available, the five-story Oakford plan. LaFrance Square

The main hangout and first bedroom level with the Oakford plan. LaFrance Square

Top levels of the Oakford plan. LaFrance Square

The community’s largest options, the four-story Whitefoord plan, have three bedrooms and three and ½ bathrooms in 1,800 square feet. Those now start at $4,000 monthly.

LaFrance Square joins hundreds of other rental townhome options that cropped up across Atlanta through the pandemic and post-pandemic years. Other examples span from Peoplestown and Pittsburgh to Grant Park and many points throughout the suburbs.

The product type has drawn the ire of some municipalities and residents in the metro, however, for consuming valuable land with housing that doesn’t allow occupants to build equity through homeownership.

At LaFrance Square, only townhomes are marketed as being available now. But studio and one-bedroom apartment options are in the pipeline, according to developers.

Facades along LaFrance today. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta