A construction crane in Old Fourth Ward just marked the first real progress on a promise more than a decade in the making. The new six-story building at 251 Pine St., a 148-unit apartment complex reserved for low-income seniors, has topped out on the northeast section of the sprawling Atlanta Civic Center property across from Renaissance Park, according to Urbanize Atlanta.
The milestone comes nine months after the official groundbreaking, a turnaround that Josh Green, writing for Urbanize Atlanta, noted with a touch of relief in the piece's subtitle: “now that was quick — for once.” Window installation and facade work are already underway on the building, which includes a parking deck and a 1,642-square-foot retail café space fronting Pine Street. Of the 148 one-bedroom units, which run roughly 600 square feet each per earlier filings, 118 are reserved for renters earning 60 percent of area median income or less, with the remainder capped at 50 percent of AMI at most. Leasing is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2027.
A $60 Million First Step Toward a Much Bigger Vision
Atlanta Housing is leading development of the building in partnership with the Michaels Organization, Sophy Capital, and Republic Properties Corporation, per the same account. The first component is expected to cost $60 million, and according to Bisnow, KeyBank Community Development Lending & Investment structured nearly $73 million in total financing behind it — a $39.1 million construction loan, $25.2 million in Low Income Housing Tax Credit equity, an $8.5 million Fannie Mae permanent loan arrangement, and $30 million in tax-exempt bonds.
That capital stack is just the opening move. The full 19-acre master plan carries an estimated development cost between $750 million and $1 billion, projecting 1.8 million square feet that would eventually include 1,300 to 1,500 mixed-income apartments, offices, retail, a grocery store, a hotel, and space for a school, as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Goode Van Slyke Architecture are leading the master plan for the site, while design firm TVS is directing the cultural concept design for the historic Performing Arts Center building, according to AIA Atlanta.
Built Over Buttermilk Bottom
The land carries heavy historical weight. The Atlanta Civic Center opened in 1965 as a home base for the arts near downtown, but it was built after the city razed Buttermilk Bottom, a working-class Black neighborhood whose clearance displaced more than 1,500 families without providing alternative housing, according to the Sierra Club. Over the decades the Civic Center auditorium, with its 4,600 seats, hosted the Metropolitan Opera, Theater of the Stars, the Atlanta Opera, and television productions including Family Feud, per Urbanize Atlanta's reporting.
Atlanta Housing has framed the current redevelopment as an explicitly restorative effort tied to that history. The authority has also described the plaza and fountain planned for the site as continuing the tradition of cultural institutions serving as an iconic landmark and public amenity for urban residents, per Atlanta Housing. The Civic Center closed in 2014 due to rising operational losses and sat mostly idle apart from occasional concerts and events, and the City of Atlanta sold the 19-acre parcel to Atlanta Housing in 2017 for $30.2 million, according to WABE.
A Decade of Collapsed Deals
Getting to this point took repeated false starts. Weingarten Realty abandoned plans in 2016 to transform the site into a mixed-use hub that would have included about 650 housing units and a Publix grocery, and Tishman Speyer later backed out in 2022 of a partnership with H.J. Russell & Co. to redevelop the property, per Urbanize Atlanta's account. Historic Atlanta led a preservation effort in 2018 for historically significant Civic Center structures, and the building itself was originally designed by Harold Montague of Robert & Co.
The Atlanta Housing Board of Commissioners finally voted in November 2023 to enter into a Master Development Agreement with Atlanta Civic Center Partners LLC to redevelop the 4.36-acre Performing Arts Center structure and plaza, according to Atlanta Housing. That set the stage for the December 9, 2025, groundbreaking ceremony, attended by Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, former Mayor Kasim Reed, and Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts, as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Density Debate and an Open Timeline
Not everyone is satisfied with the shape of the plan. Atlanta City Councilmember Amir Farokhi, who represents the district covering the site, publicly criticized the 1,500-unit target in 2024, arguing that a 19-acre, transit-adjacent parcel this close to downtown should support significantly higher housing density, according to Atlanta Civic Circle.
Beyond the first building, the broader Civic Center development has no specified timeline, and the exact future use of the historic Performing Arts Center building remains undetermined, though officials have said it will be preserved as part of the long-term redevelopment, per Urbanize Atlanta's reporting. The project's progress fits into a wider municipal push: Atlanta Housing directed $104.4 million in its FY2026 budget toward creating 1,383 new affordable units and preserving 1,136 more, part of Mayor Dickens' citywide goal of 20,000 affordable homes by 2030.
