In a unique arrangement downtown, a relatively new apartment building that started life as almost entirely market-rate residences has switched a significant portion of its units to affordable housing.

Invest Atlanta recently approved a $4 million Westside Tax Allocation District Ascension Fund grant to help expand affordable housing options within Generation Atlanta, a multifamily development that overlooks Centennial Olympic Park.

Located at 369 Centennial Olympic Park Drive, the 17-story project was developed by Atlanta-based Kaplan Residential in 2021. Of its 336 apartments, just five units were originally designated as affordable, set aside for residents earning 60 percent of the area median income or less. 

With the TAD grant, the building’s current owner, The Frankforter Group, has converted an additional 66 market-rate apartments to affordable options at 60 percent AMI, according to Invest Atlanta. That’s more than 21 percent of residences in the building overall. 

The 17-story Generation Atlanta. Photo by Zach Rolen; courtesy of Kaplan Residential; designs, Niles Bolton Associates, Focus Design

In turn, Invest Atlanta officials are executing a Land Use Restrictive Agreement on the downtown property for 30 years to ensure the affordability of rentals is preserved. 

The AMI-capped units at Generation Atlanta are complete and now available to households with qualifying incomes, per Invest Atlanta. (Find more info on applying here.) Otherwise, current rents at Generation Atlanta start at $1,300 monthly for 547-square-foot studio options. 

Generation Atlanta broke ground on a previously vacant, 1.8-acre lot in 2018, which Kaplan had acquired for $6.4 million.

Kaplan offloaded the building to Montreal-based Frankforter Group in late 2021 for $126.9 million—the highest amount a multifamily building had traded for in downtown’s history at the time. The building was later threatened with foreclosure last summer, as Bisnow Atlanta reported. 

In-home perks of the downtown apartments include quartz countertops, keyless entry, full-size washers and dryers, and private balconies.

Amenities around the property include a rare bowling alley, outdoor theater, rooftop pool with a sundeck, a coffee bar, EV charging stations, and what’s called a SkyBar Lounge with skyline views, among other features.

Frankforter Group counts more than 2,000 units in its metro Atlanta portfolio, but Generation Atlanta marked the company’s first downtown acquisition. 

The building is notable in that it was the Southeast’s first to be constructed with a Prescient light-gauge steel structural system, which Kaplan officials said reduced the project’s construction timeline and associated cost by almost 25 percent.

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