For the first time in a year and a half, the mixed-use development meant to transform an idle Old Fourth Ward block near two major roadways is showing signs of movement. Paperwork filed last week with Atlanta's Department of City Planning suggests construction phases could be starting at 505 Highland Ave.
The specific request is modest but telling: project representatives sought the city's permission to install a sewer plug, typically an initial step before construction. A permit for the work has since been issued, according to city records.
The project comes from Fuqua Development and its Charlotte-based partner Northwood Ravin, first put forward in 2022 as an apartment complex anchored by a grocery store — the kind of tenant this stretch of Old Fourth Ward has gone without. A Special Application Permit for the overall development was approved by the city two years ago. The November permitting paperwork shows the apartment count modified slightly to 285 units, along with what the filing calls “some retail space.”
The site itself is roughly three acres at the Highland Avenue and Boulevard intersection, most recently occupied by the shuttered Desperate Housewares Atlanta furniture store before demolition work cleared it. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reported in the summer of 2023 that the development team had closed on the 3.3-acre parcel at $4 million per acre.
Neither Fuqua nor Northwood Ravin returned inquiries for an update. Northwood Ravin's website identifies the project only as “Highland” and lists it as coming soon — the same holding pattern it has been in while construction costs and financing conditions kept a long list of Atlanta projects from breaking ground.
For the neighborhood, the grocery component is the part worth watching. Old Fourth Ward has absorbed a great deal of new housing over the past decade without a corresponding increase in everyday retail, and a full grocery store at Highland and Boulevard would serve a considerably wider radius than the 285 apartments above it.
Original reporting by Josh Green for Urbanize Atlanta, published December 2024.