Teachers Village was first proposed for downtown Atlanta in early 2021. Five years later, the ground still has not been broken - and the latest target date is about to pass.
The project calls for a tower of more than 30 stories at 98 Cone St., near Centennial Olympic Park, combining workforce housing and retail on one of downtown's more active blocks. Previous timelines pointed to a 2024 groundbreaking, then to Oct. 20 of last year. When that date came and went, New Jersey-based developer RBH Group said the 457,500-square-foot tower would break ground in the first quarter of 2026 - a window with less than three weeks left when the developer was asked for an update.
No new groundbreaking forecast was offered. Instead, RBH pointed to the project's complexity.
"The development is both innovative and truly the first of its kind," RBH spokesperson Lonnie Soury wrote. "As such, several components of the project are actively in process. We are proceeding to obtain all the necessary permits and working to finalize the Guaranteed Maximum Price. The project's innovative bond financing structure also requires additional coordination and timing. Overall, the project continues to move forward as we advance each component toward successful execution."
The most recent permitting activity on file with Atlanta's Department of City Planning dates to late December, when the team filed for permission to begin foundation work.
What is at stake is a meaningful amount of non-market housing in a part of town that has very little. Developers have said the 375-foot tower would hold 424 apartments, none of them rented at market rate. Of those, 227 would be reserved for independent-living seniors and the remaining 197 marketed as workforce housing for teachers, other school employees and seniors. RBH describes it as a model for shared, intergenerational living, and as a first for Georgia.
Invest Atlanta approved a $4 million Tax Allocation District grant and $26 million in tax-exempt bond financing in 2021 to support the teacher-designated portion, citing RBH's earlier Teachers Village projects in Newark and Hartford, Connecticut.
Designers S9 Architecture and a 2023 building permit application put the tower at 33 stories; RBH has more recently told 11Alive the count will be 31.
Original reporting by Josh Green for Urbanize Atlanta, published March 2026.
