A project covering nearly a full city block in one of Atlanta's most expensive submarkets has started construction, and every apartment in it will be rent-capped.
City Lights North Block began site work and demolition in recent weeks at 633 Parkway Drive, between North Avenue and Ponce de Leon Avenue, roughly four blocks west of Ponce City Market. Part of the Old Fourth Ward site will also front Boulevard near its intersection with Ponce de Leon.
What is being built
Plans call for 187 apartments, all capped at rates deemed affordable, in a wide range of unit sizes.
The building program leans heavily toward services rather than amenities in the luxury sense: an after-school program, a business center with computers, a community room, a fitness center, a central laundry facility on every floor, and a private courtyard. Project officials also cite transit access as a selling point, which on this block is accurate.
Phase five of a longer project
North Block is the fifth phase of City Lights, Massachusetts developer Wingate's master-planned redevelopment of Bedford Pines, the cluster of HUD Section 8 multifamily buildings along and near Boulevard. The phased approach has let the redevelopment proceed without emptying the entire community at once.
Site clearing has been underway for a while. A row of low-rise housing came down several years ago, and a two-story brick structure at Parkway Drive and North Avenue was demolished this month.
Context on the block
Directly across the street stands The Views at O4W, a cove of modern townhomes built just before and during the pandemic, which is a fair snapshot of what this neighborhood has otherwise been producing.
That contrast is the point. Old Fourth Ward's land values have climbed for more than a decade, and 187 income-restricted units arriving on a full block west of Ponce City Market is not something the market would have delivered on its own. Geheber Lewis Associates designed the building, with Invest Atlanta involved on the economic development side.
Original reporting by Josh Green for Urbanize Atlanta, published March 2025.
