A vacant, fenced-off downtown corner that has sat unused for well over a decade is finally close to becoming something. The team behind Trinity Central Flats, the affordable housing project across the street from Atlanta City Hall, filed for building permits last week with the Department of City Planning, as Bisnow first reported — nearly three years after city officials chose developers to build it.
The permit filings describe a finalized version of the proposal. Trinity Central Flats will rise 10 stories and 123 feet at the .84-acre southeast corner of Trinity and Central avenues, in brick and precast, carrying 219 apartments. Ground level now calls for 6,700 square feet of retail across three storefronts along Central Avenue, about 800 square feet less than earlier designs. Six ordinance variations were approved during the Special Administrative Permit process.
Amenities in the filings run toward the practical: a bicycle storage room with exterior access, an arts and crafts room, a computer lab, a gym, a laundry facility, and other shared spaces.
The financing took as long as the design. The Atlanta City Council voted unanimously in the spring of 2021 to hand the parcel to Invest Atlanta for $1. In September 2023, Invest Atlanta's board approved up to $3 million in Eastside Tax Allocation District funding to help get the project off the ground. That Ascension Fund grant sits alongside federal and state sources including tax-exempt bonds and tax credits, in a public-private deal now valued at roughly $72 million. Invest Atlanta is considered a partner in the development.
Location is the argument city officials have made for the site all along: it is within walking distance of three MARTA stations, which they have called one of Atlanta's most convenient locations. It is also directly across from City Hall, on a block where the gap between civic intent and built housing has been visible from the mayor's windows for more than ten years.
Original reporting by Josh Green for Urbanize Atlanta, published October 2024.