Pratt Pullman District developer is selling portion of site to apartment builder

The owner and developer of the historic rail depot formerly known as Pratt-Pullman Yard is offloading about six acres of the Kirkwood site to a residential developer.

Adam Rosenfelt, property owner and head of development group (and production company) Atomic Entertainment, tells Curbed Atlanta national developer Alliance Residential is under contract to purchase a piece of land on the southernmost section of the 27-acre site, now called Pratt Pullman District.

Plans call for three apartment buildings housing a total of 355 units—10 percent of which are expected to be affordable units priced at 80 percent of the area median income—according to Noah Randall, Alliance Residential development director.

That piece of the defunct rail yard—part of which abuts Rogers Street, where the entrance to the site would be—is currently vacant and devoid of historic, protected buildings.

OCX

Construction of Alliance’s rental project is scheduled to kick off next spring, and the buildings could be complete and tenant-ready by early 2022, Randall said.

As proposed, the venture would have no parking deck but hundreds of spaces for surface parking, mostly tucked back from the street.

Rosenfelt said Atomic was approached by a handful of residential developers from around the country who were interested in being part of the revitalization of Pullman Yard, but Alliance was picked because “they seemed to have a good sense of what we believe is progressive urban design.”

“There are no calls for a parking deck,” he added. “There are calls for surface parking. We did that on purpose because we didn’t want them to build a parking deck; we want to be able to build here. We don’t know what parking is going to look like [in the future]. If you build a parking deck, that’s going to limit our ability to add density and more buildings.”

For the time being, Rosenfelt said, Alliance would be given an easement to use Atomic’s land for its parking needs.

According to early sketches Alliance shared with Curbed, architecture firm Brock Hudgins is aiming to design at least one apartment building in a way that pays homage to the historic structures farther north on the redevelopment site.

Alliance’s plans are expected to go before the City of Atlanta’s Urban Design Commission on November 13, Randall said. Neighborhood groups are scheduled to weigh in this week.

Below are early looks at proposed elevations.