New apartments could be coming to Atlanta's Fourth Ward

ATLANTA - Atlanta’s Fourth Ward may get some new neighbors. A developer wants to construct two apartment buildings in the area around North Angier Avenue and Rankin Street near the BeltLine.

New City Properties proposes two 20-story buildings that would house 780 units.

People who live in the area say it’s a good idea, as long as some of it is affordable.

"I’m in general for it," said Harris Osserman, a fourth ward resident. "More people should live here. It could definitely support more development."

The buildings would sit in Councilman Amir Farokhi’s Fourth Ward district.

"This is right on the BeltLine where we want to see density in more housing," said Councilman Farokhi (Dist. 2). "The properties that will be developed are a vacant parking lot and an old industrial building. This is the perfect type of development for this area."

Each building would contain three levels of underground parking, community spaces and retail. Farokhi says the developers would be required to make a certain number of apartments affordable. "That will require at least 10-percent of units to be affordable," Farokhi said.

It’s one of the latest projects aimed at re-making downtown Atlanta and surrounding neighborhoods. Georgia-Pacific plans to convert the upper floors of its building on Peachtree Street into apartments. Developers launched a $5 billion plan to revamp the gulch. Another group is converting the old CNN Center into an office and retail complex.

Erin Kenney supports the proposal in her neighborhood as long as it doesn’t uproot and price out the people who live there.

"Affordable housing would be helpful," Kenney said. "It would be nice if more people lived in the city, but I don’t think they should be super overcharged for it."

The development is still in the proposal phase. It’s unclear how much it would cost. A city advisory panel is scheduled to review the proposal on Tuesday.