Could new apartments in the $600-per-month range be a reality again in eastside Beltline neighborhoods? 

That’s the plan in Reynoldstown, where a Wisconsin-based developer with expertise in affordable housing (and a growing Atlanta portfolio) is proposing a mixed-use, infill building that would claim vacant land along Memorial Drive. 

The Gorman & Company development planned for 1119 Memorial Drive SE calls for 166 apartments in a five-story structure capped at rates for tenants earning between 30 and 70 percent of the Area Median Income. 

The location is about five blocks east of one of the Beltline’s most popular trail segments, where Memorial Drive meets a short, dead-end street called Howell Drive.  

The 2.2-acre site in question (in blue) near I-20 and Moreland Avenue.Courtesy of Gorman & Company; alteration, UA

Plans for the five-story facade along Memorial Drive, with commercial space at the bottom left corner. Courtesy of Gorman & Company; designs, Gorman Architectural, Inc.

Site plans provided by the developer to Urbanize Atlanta show a commercial space (1,250 square feet) and leasing office and amenity area (2,400 square feet) fronting Memorial Drive. 

The majority of the apartments (103 total) would be one-bedroom options, with rents starting as low as $663 per month, according to Gorman’s proposal. 

The priciest apartment option at the complex would be three-bedroom floorplans that rent for $2,144 per month at 70 percent AMI. 

Amenities call for a fitness center, community room, outdoor hangout, and a computer center. A parking deck tucked away from Memorial Drive would include one space per unit. 

Tyler Rufenacht, Gorman’s development project manager, recently brought the proposal before the Reynoldstown Civic Improvement League. 

According to Rufenacht, Gorman is seeking a letter of support to present to Invest Atlanta for Tax Allocation District incentives, with plans to apply to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs in September. The incentives request will total about $22 million, with $3 million sourced from TAD funding and the remaining $19 million in bonds, per Rufenacht.

The vacant acreage in question, as seen in early 2025 along Memorial Drive (at right), facing west toward downtown Atlanta. Google Maps

Tentative site plan, with a leasing office and commercial space shown along Memorial Drive. Courtesy of Gorman & Company

Should funding plans pan out, Rufenacht says Gorman hopes to break ground on the project in November next year. It’s targeted for completion in September 2029. 

According to Fulton County property records, the site in question totals about 2.2 acres and last sold for $1.42 million in September 2023 to an LLC named for the address. 

Part of the Memorial Drive site in question has acted as an encampment in recent years, though the city has worked to clear it. Neighboring the southern portion of the site is the Ralph David House, a former 1960s motel that opened as transitional housing last year. 

Over the past few years, Gorman has been on a building spree around Atlanta, with the topped-out Sweet Auburn Grande development being a recent addition to its portfolio.

The company opened its first Atlanta project in Westview and another near MARTA’s Hamilton E. Holmes station in 2024, with another proposal near the Mall West End redevelopment also in the pipeline west of downtown.  

A Gorman development with an adaptive-reuse component, Folio House (formerly the Atlanta Constitution Building), is under construction, while the company’s proposed remake of historic church property elsewhere downtown is gearing up to break ground this year, company officials have said. 

Meanwhile, another transit-focused Gorman project in downtown East Point broke ground this past spring. 

“We have a large amount of experience,” Rufenacht noted, “developing high-quality, well-designed housing in the Atlanta area.”

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