First look: Ormewood Park mystery build unveiled at last! ( atlanta.urbanize.city )

First look: Ormewood Park mystery build unveiled at last!
Josh Green
Thu, 06/27/2024 - 11:55
For a couple of months, Ormewood Park residents, neighborhood leaders, and former property owners have wondered aloud (in emails) what’s going on with construction at the highly visible northwest corner of Gracewood and Moreland avenues, where a vacant lot has been cleared in preparation for … something.

Following a bit of sleuthing (and patience), the answers have arrived: Construction is underway on a brick-clad infill project called The Gracewood that just might qualify as old school.

SLR Investments—the company behind another new eastside residential build, the Alley of Edgewood—purchased the .7-acre lot in Ormewood Park for $1.06 million last year.

Located at 1160 Gracewood Ave., the site is immediately south of the Ormewood Square commercial hub that’s home to Morelli’s Gourmet Ice Cream, Little Azio, and other businesses. It’s also across the street from Pollo Primo restaurant and roughly a half-mile south of East Atlanta Village.

https://atlanta.urbanize.city/sites/default/files/styles/950w/public/2024-06/The%20Gracewood%201160%20Gracewood.png?itok=259OWX5e
The Gracewood's site in relation to Moreland Avenue (in blue) and East Atlanta (at right). Google Maps

https://atlanta.urbanize.city/sites/default/files/styles/950w/public/2024-06/The%20Gracewood%201160%20Gracewood%201.png?itok=KVgnL_eJ
The Gracewood's Moreland Avenue facade. Courtesy of SLR Investments

According to project officials, The Gracewood calls for a loft-style, three-story apartment building with 36 units fronting Moreland Avenue, with some greenspace situated around the site for tenants. Surface parking (one space per unit) will be situated behind the building, according to plans compiled by Place Maker Design architects.

All apartments will have a single-bedroom, with either outdoor spaces or porches, according to SLR reps.

It’s too early in the development process to specify rent prices, but project officials hope to begin leasing new units sometime next summer at a location billed as “the heart of Ormewood Park.”

https://atlanta.urbanize.city/sites/default/files/styles/950wb/public/2024-06/1160%20Gracewood%202.jpg?itok=4DC3GnC5
Scope of clearing work across the .7-acre site, with Moreland Avenue shown at right. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

https://atlanta.urbanize.city/sites/default/files/styles/950w/public/2024-06/site%20plan%20The%20Gracewood%201160%20Gracewood.png?itok=vPeBJwwQ
Overview of the 1160 Gracewood Ave. site plan, with neighboring single-family property shown at top. Courtesy of SLR Investments

According to Ormewood Park residents Brent Huff and Mike Gardner, who’ve called the neighborhood home for nearly 30 years, the property used to house an apartment complex in disrepair that was torn down several years ago, leaving the lot empty ever since.

The project hadn’t come through NPU-W land use and zoning vetting processes or other neighborhood meetings, “so we can only surmise that no variance was needed, or it was obtained very long ago,” wrote Huff and Gardner in a joint email.

Find more context and all available imagery for The Gracewood in the gallery above.

...

Follow us on social media:

Twitter / Facebook/and now: Instagram

• Ormewood Park news, discussion (Urbanize Atlanta)