Planned Edgewood apartments signal that building boom near MARTA isn’t slowing

When it comes to intown corridors that’ve been drastically, physically altered during Atlanta’s post-recession rebound, places like Memorial Drive and Howell Mill Road are most often cited by development wonks.

But don’t sleep on Edgewood’s La France Street.

Headlined by MARTA’s first foray into transit-oriented development in the modern era—the redo of underused parking lots in Edgewood—hundreds of new residences have sprouted in the past couple of years along La France, continuing with the planned overhaul of what’s now called the Pratt Pullman District and townhome construction along Kirkwood’s Rogers Street.

Now, the latest substantial piece in the La France corridor’s denser future is moving forward with demolition.

At the corner of Arizona Avenue and La France, a warehouse has been reduced to rubble as grading and site work move forward where The Ardent Companies is planning a multifamily build.

Google Maps

James Baker, a director with Ardent, confirmed to Curbed Atlanta his company is behind the project but said renderings are being finalized and aren’t ready to be distributed.

Baker did not provide information on a project timeline or detail what’s actually being built.

A neighborhood leader tells Curbed the project is expected to offer 105 apartments.

Ardent is a team of companies that functions as a private asset management and real estate investment group.

Elsewhere, the firm has broken ground this year on a 35-acre Athens development, which includes a music venue, and has bought office buildings in north Atlanta, becoming one of Buckhead’s largest landlords, per Ardent officials.

Ardent’s apartment venture in Edgewood continues the momentum of new housing options within walking distance to the Edgewood-Candler Park Station.

With more than 100 units, it would be the La France corridor’s largest housing addition outside of MARTA’s Spoke.

That project’s next mixed-use phase has consumed, as of this week, the station’s last surface parking lot, restricting parking capacity until a new deck opens sometime in 2021.

Curbed Atlanta