In the works for the better part of a decade, a large Memorial Drive townhome community is entering its final phase of construction on the site of a former landfill, continuing a surge of residential development in the corridor that shows few signs of slowing.

Development officials tell Urbanize Atlanta vertical construction has started on the third and final phase of “The Moderns,” a 62-unit project that’s been taking shape since 2016 in the 2000 block of Memorial Drive, where Kirkwood meets the DeKalb County neighborhood Parkview. 

The last phase will see 31 townhomes built, and the first grouping of those is expected to be listed this week, according to Allen Snow, an Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty associate broker.

The Memorial Drive-fronting townhome community, as seen last summer.Google Maps

Snow says most of the final new offerings at The Moderns will be priced in the $600,000s—not including a section that’s going to be reserved as workforce housing with smaller living options.

“There is still a building of workforce in the next phase,” Snow wrote in an email, “but I have no information on when those will start nor the pricing.”

As designed by TSW Architects, each townhome is four stories with a deeded, fenced yard.

The larger homes will have three bedrooms, three and ½ bathrooms, and full rooftop decks in roughly 2,500 square feet.

The workforce housing options, meanwhile, will feature two bedrooms and two and ½ bathrooms in about 1,500 square feet, with rooftop hangouts up top, project officials have said. 

The Moderns' 2029 Memorial Drive location, just west of East Lake Golf Club and Drew Charter School. Google Maps

The Moderns site plan in Parkview. Cablik Enterprises; designs, TSW

Following delays with the county, the second half of The Moderns project received building permits last summer, Snow has previously said.  

The site is home to a tributary that snakes through the property, which in the 1800s played host to several paper mills. More recently, it’d been a landfill. Sugar Creek was brought back to the surface and worked into the community as an amenity, sales associates have previously said.  

When it first started coming to market, the larger Moderns units were priced in the mid-$400,000s, and the skinnier, smaller, foot-in-the-door options in the mid-$200,000s. Ballooning home values across Atlanta and the ongoing transformation of Memorial into a more vibrant east-west thoroughfare have contributed to price hikes. 

Find a closer look and more context in the gallery above.  

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Before/after: Memorial Drive's unreal transformation in recent years (Urbanize Atlanta)