One of downtown Atlanta's most recognizable high-rises could be swapping suitcases for sofas. New city filings show a plan to convert much of the Rhodes-Haverty Building at 134 Peachtree St. NW, a 21-story landmark long operated as a Residence Inn by Marriott, into rental housing. The first phase would focus on turning most of the hotel floors into roughly 160 apartments stacked above the lower levels, while leaving the exterior untouched.
The Atlanta Urban Design Commission's April agenda lists a Type II Certificate of Appropriateness application for 134 Peachtree (CA2-26-102). The filing names Alex Fite-Wassilak as the applicant and places the proposal on the city's review calendar. The agenda item and related documents were posted this month for the commission's April meeting, according to the City of Atlanta's City of Atlanta.
What The Filings Propose
Detailed plans described in local coverage outline a phased conversion of floors three through 20 into about 160 apartments. The documents indicate there would be no change to the building's exterior or overall height and only "limited interior unit renovations" in order to keep existing plumbing and life-safety systems in place. The filing also calls for eight accessible units with roll-in showers on lower floors and describes the work primarily as an interior shift from short-term hotel rooms to long-term rentals. The property owner is identified as an Irving, Texas-based LLC, and Atlanta-based firm TSW is listed as involved in the project, according to Urbanize Atlanta.
History And Condition
Completed in 1929, the Rhodes-Haverty Building was adapted into a Residence Inn in the 1990s, with its restored lobby murals by artist Athos Menaboni remaining a standout interior feature. The tower saw renovation work in 2015, but it made headlines again last summer when visible exterior damage led to lane and sidewalk closures after an incident involving falling bricks. Even with the detours on the street below, the hotel continued to accept guests while inspections and repairs were underway, as reported by FOX 5 Atlanta.
How It Fits Downtown
The Rhodes-Haverty proposal lands in the middle of a broader wave of adaptive-reuse projects reshaping downtown Atlanta's skyline and street life. Across Peachtree Street, Georgia-Pacific is moving ahead with plans to rework its 51-story headquarters into more than 400 apartments, along with tens of thousands of square feet of retail space and a MARTA-connected plaza that city leaders say could significantly reshape the block, according to the AJC. That push to add more residents to the central business district is the backdrop for the potential Rhodes-Haverty conversion.
The publicly posted materials do not include a construction timeline, and questions sent to the applicant had not been answered as of press time, according to local reporting. For now, the building is still listed as the Residence Inn Atlanta-Downtown on Marriott's website while the filings make their way through city review. Neighbors and preservation advocates are expected to weigh in as the Atlanta Urban Design Commission takes up the proposal.
