A year after topping out, exterior construction has mostly wrapped for an Atlanta Beltline-adjacent project that’s set to introduce a sizable jolt of relatively affordable housing to the city’s southside.

Visible from several neighborhoods south and east of downtown, Skyline Apartments, a Peoplestown venture led by New York-based developer Exact Capital Group and Aleem Construction, is the tallest new development overlooking any Beltline segment not named the Eastside Trail. The 11-story project is expected to offer exclusively affordable housing, thanks to financial help from both city and state coffers.

Situated just north of the Southside Trail corridor, the Skyline Apartments’ 250 rentals will be reserved for tenants earning 60 percent or less of the area's median income for at least 15 years, Beltline officials have said.

Plans call for 46 studios, 101 one-bedroom rentals, and 103 two-bedrooms. A retail component that Beltline officials have described as “small” is also in the mix.

Pre-leasing has yet to launch, and the price range for rentals hasn’t been specified.

The Beltline’s affordable housing tracker lists Skyline Apartments’ delivery as TBD. The project was initially expected to open in 2023, but that was delayed.

Skyline claimed a vacant lot at 1090 Hank Aaron Drive, just east of the downtown Connector.

The vacant site as seen in November 2021. Google Maps

How the Skyline Apartments building's brick base has come together along Hank Aaron Drive. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Meanwhile, across the street, adaptive-reuse food hall and office venture Terminal South officially began construction in February. Both projects, located about two miles south of downtown, are expected to be served by MARTA’s first bus-rapid transit service line come next year.

Amenities at the Skyline complex are set to include a fitness center, outdoor pavilion, centralized laundry facilities, and access to the aforementioned public transportation, officials have said. 

The Beltline contributed $2 million toward the Skyline project, as sourced from the Atlanta Beltline Affordable Housing Trust Fund, or BAHTF. Beyond that, Exact Capital received a tax-exempt bond from Invest Atlanta’s Urban Residential Finance Authority and low-income housing tax credits from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, among other funding sources. 

Just east of the Skyline site, more than 900 apartments and townhomes have sprung up in three separate developments along the Beltline corridor over the past few years.  

Construction on the Terminal South offices and food hall is seen across the street at left. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

How the 250-unit Skyline project will front Hank Aaron Drive in Peoplestown. Rendering courtesy of Exact Capital

Work is also barreling ahead for the area's Beltline section: Southside Trail Segments 2 and 3, or what will officially be called the Southside Trail (as opposed to the Southeast and Southwest trails). That's a 2.4-mile section between Boulevard and Metropolitan Parkway.

Tree-clearing and other heavy work began in earnest for that section last month. The Beltline expects the full trail to open by early 2026, in time for World Cup visitors that year, followed by landscaping work.

Find more context and a closer look at the Skyline project today in the gallery above.

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