The upper floors of 85 Peachtree St. have been mostly empty for about half a century. They are not empty anymore. The 1899 Bass Dry Goods Building — widely regarded as Atlanta's first department store and one of the earliest in the Southeast — has reopened as 26 apartments, and Jon Birdsong, a partner with Atlanta Ventures, says six of them leased in roughly the first month on the market.
The South Downtown team bought the building out of foreclosure for $3.3 million and has since put about $25 million into the residential conversion, with Smith Dalia Architects on the design. Rents start at $1,825 for a 640-square-foot studio. The most expensive floorplan still available starts at $3,500 a month for a two-bedroom, two-bath unit of just over 1,222 square feet. Twelve floorplans are offered in all, with ceilings as high as 14 feet, real hardwood floors and Bosch appliances.
The apartments come with no parking in the building itself; after the story first ran, South Downtown officials clarified that dedicated parking sits a half-block away in the 76 Forsyth St. garage. The pitch leans on transit instead. Management is marketing the units as the most transit-connected rentals in the city, and the geography backs it up: Five Points and Garnett stations are both a short walk or roll away, protected bike lanes run nearby, and MARTA's new A-Line bus rapid transit route connects down to the finished Southside Trail on the Beltline.
Shared spaces include a rooftop amenity deck with downtown views and an onsite bike room. At street level the building holds a large retail bay, a residents' courtyard, and a public paseo carved out of what was the 81 Peachtree St. building. Sitting in that paseo is a 1921 Atlanta streetcar that the Southern Railway Museum found rotting in North Georgia; it was stabilized, hauled to South Downtown and is being renovated, with plans to eventually turn it into a small restaurant, bar or standing showpiece.
The timing matters for the district. South Downtown has had a loud summer — a run of new business openings, weeks of World Cup crowds, and more recently a slowdown in redevelopment activity along with several staff cuts. A finished, occupied building with residents paying rent is a different kind of milestone than an announcement, and for a stretch of Peachtree that spent decades hollowed out above the storefronts, it is the first sustained residential occupancy in living memory.
Original reporting: Urbanize Atlanta (2026-07-31)