Old Fourth Ward’s block-altering Waldo’s project is officially a go

After percolating for more than a year, a mixed-complex proposal in Old Fourth Ward’s southern reaches that stands out for its sheer size is officially launching construction.

A groundbreaking for Waldo’s Old Fourth Ward is planned Wednesday next door to the Edgewood Avenue nightlife district, which the project stands to lord over, a rep for Waldo’s architecture firm, tvsdesign, tells Curbed Atlanta.

The $80 million complex could infuse Boulevard near the intersection of Edgewood Avenue with hundreds of office workers, hotel guests, shoppers, and new O4W residents.

Demolition at the site that spans nearly a full city block began last month, when a small corner grocery was toppled.

Waldo’s seven-story office stack, fabricated by StructureCraft, would be just the second of its kind in Atlanta, behind Hines’s T3 West Midtown at Atlantic Station.

Plans also call for the country’s first Motto By Hilton hotel, to include a speakeasy, a restaurant, and retail in a courtyard space that connects each part of the property.

The latest numbers breakdown, as provided today: 80 keys at the boutique hotel; 10,000 square feet of retail, food, and beverage; and a substantial 120,000 square feet of offices.

Developer Lucror Resources and investor Sixty West Funds also aim to bring a three-story residential component (along the project’s eastern side). Waldo’s would entail about 200,000 square feet overall.

In a Curbed Q&A earlier this year, Janet Simpson, tvsdesign president and a scheduled participant in Wednesday’s groundbreaking, said Waldo’s is designed to enhance “the community that’s already there” with “an opportunity to create a remarkable experience, [and] we’re really excited about that.”

Lucror—best known as the developer behind the downtown adaptive-reuse project FlatironCity—acquired the 1.5-acre Waldo’s site in September 2018.