A cleared site along Memorial Drive that was supposed to see nearly 200 apartments topping out this year a few steps from the BeltLine will instead house… nothing. At least for the foreseeable future.
That’s the word today from Arthur Cohen, an experienced Atlanta developer and partner in an LLC called KCC Capital.
KCC Capital bought the 952 Memorial Drive property in Reynoldstown in December where beloved local business Reid’s Body Shop had operated for nearly 70 years before closing in 2022.
Toro Development Company convinced the body shop to sell its 1.6 acres for $6.8 million and then completed demolition work at the block-sized site early last year. Then it all went quiet.
TDC, headed by former North American Properties executive Mark Toro, had planned to build 185 apartments in two phases called The Reid Flats, a nod to the property’s longtime owner.
According to Cohen, those plans—like any other plans—are off the table for now, in light of tough capital markets for developers.
“As of now, no concrete plans,” Cohen wrote to Urbanize Atlanta via email. “[We’re] waiting to see how interest rates move.”
The first conceptual look at plans for The Reid Flats along Memorial Drive. Toro Development Company; designs, Dynamik Design
Property records indicate the Memorial Drive land traded in December for $4.8 million, or a discount compared to what TDC had paid. Cohen confirmed his group spent “in that vicinity” to acquire the property.
Cohen is also the cofounder and a partner with real estate brokerage, development, and property management firm Cross-Town Realty and a principle with developer Tecton.
The latter company has built creative loft office and residential projects that include The Willoughby offices and Sager Lofts in Old Fourth Ward, The Ten Forty Commercial Lofts in Grant Park, The Elliot in the Armour Yards district, and South City Kitchen.
The corner building housing popular diner Home Grown, shown at right, wasn't impacted by demolition. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta
How the property in question excludes the popular breakfast and lunch spot next door. Fulton County Government/Board of Assessors
For Toro, The Reid Flats project was intended to mark his return to intown real estate development and fourth venture along the Eastside Trail corridor. Others include Edge OTB, Anthem on Ashley, and Camden Fourth Ward (formerly BOHO4W). The Reid Flats marked TDC’s first new multifamily project to break ground—at least in terms of demolition. Meanwhile, the company’s much larger mixed-use venture in suburban Johns Creek—the 43-acre Medley project—continues to move forward.
The Memorial Drive project joins two other proposals within a few blocks that have recently changed course in the same neighborhood. Those include Colgate Mattress Lofts (now cancelled) and a 2-acre site at 195 Chester Ave., which national developer Toll Brothers has sold to Atlanta-based Embry Development Company to build a mix of 85 townhomes and condos.
Reid’s was one of Memorial Drive’s last big landowner holdouts near the Eastside Trail. In a statement when the shop’s closure became news in 2022, owner Robert Reid said the family was “excited to see this become a great new place for people to live.”
TDC’s plans called for a range of studios up to two-bedroom units, with a pool on the roof. Fifteen percent of the rentals would have been reserved as affordable housing—as required by the BeltLine’s inclusionary zoning ordinance—at 80 percent of the area’s median income.
The apartments were planned to rise on a sloped site next to popular diner Home Grown at the corner of Memorial Drive and Holtzclaw Street, just north of the Madison Yards mixed-use complex. No new retail was planned.
The Reid Flats were scheduled to begin vertical construction in May and to start delivering in summer 2025. Instead, for the time being, it’s crickets.
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