Photos: Beltline-straddling ‘Edge’ project to open in December

Following the revamp and sale of Atlantic Station and Avalon’s surging growth in Alpharetta, the developer behind those projects, North American Properties, has bet big on Beltline-adjacent locations that leaders consider Atlanta’s beachfront.

Now, as one sizable build comes to fruition, another is paying off, NAP officials said today.

Where the Beltline’s Eastside Trail meets Edgewood and DeKalb avenues, NAP’s mixed-use play with a workforce housing component, Edge, is now expected to open in December, per officials.

Having risen quickly from formerly contaminated ground, Edge will be the first new project to activate both sides of the Beltline, effectively straddling the trail with a pedestrian bridge that links east and west components.

Earlier projections pegged Edge’s opening for spring 2019.

Curbed Atlanta

Expect 29,000 square feet of the mixed-use norm—restaurant, retail, and loft office space—with signings that include the area’s first Shake Shack, Hazel Jane’s Wine & Coffee, and a restaurant and bar by celebrated local chef Kevin Gillespie called Cold Beer. (The latter concept, as our sister site Eater Atlanta relayed, will have three patios, including a rooftop option and one under the Edgewood Avenue bridge).

Curbed Atlanta

On Edge’s housing front, plans call for 350 “residential units” with “10 percent designated as affordable workforce housing,” per a press releas.

Upon groundbreaking a year ago, NAP officials estimated that significantly more—30 percent—of the housing component would qualify as “affordable.”

UPDATE: An NAP rep sends the following in reference to the discrepancy in affordable housing percentages previously specified and what was mentioned this week: “ .... the percentage of affordable housing at Edge hasn’t changed. The property NAP purchased from the Atlanta Beltline [ABI] required 20 percent affordable housing. NAP took it a step further and increased the designation to 30 percent of the housing component on ABI’s property to be affordable. This number hasn’t changed. However, the entire Edge development is comprised of an assemblage of four other parcels besides what was purchased from ABI. When you take the 30 percent affordable related to the ABI parcel and average that count over the total number of units for the five parcels, it works out to a little over 10 percent for the development.”

Curbed Atlanta

Curbed Atlanta

North American Properties

Elsewhere in Old Fourth Ward, which NAP officials call “one of the Southeast’s coolest urban destinations,” NAP has sold the 244-apartment Anthem on Ashley project to Invesco Advisers.

The sale—at $370 per square foot—sets the metro Atlanta record for wood-framed multifamily development, per NAP.

Image courtesy of North American Properties

Overlooking Historic Fourth Ward Park, the Anthem project counts a saltwater pool with cabanas and an event stylist who curates communal gatherings such as “garage painting parties” and cocktail blowouts.

“Urban trail-oriented development is the new beachfront property, as people of all ages increasingly seek to live in active, walkable environments,” said Richard Munger, partner and senior vice president of residential development at NAP, in a prepared statement. “At Anthem, we created an urban, creative experience that resonates with the market. “

• Eastside Beltline’s ‘Edge’ apartment development begins rise on DeKalb Avenue [Curbed]