Images: Near East Atlanta Village, Back Corner Construction Moves Forward

Plans are becoming clearer on how a A unique east side project with a converted Masonic lodge at its heart will soon have a look and feel.

Business permit documents filed this week with the City of Atlanta Office of Buildings show redeveloped designs for the most prominent section of The Lodge, a mixed-use venture that has completed several facets where Ormewood Park meets East Atlanta Village .

According to those documents, the classic brick building will have four floors in total as speculative office space, meaning it will be built without tenants. The ground floor requires commercial space, with three levels of office space above, and each floor will be white boxed or left as raw space for future tenants, according to filings.

This building will stand at the intersection of Moreland and Glenwood avenues, facing East Atlanta Village and thousands of daily commuters.

Other elements of The Lodge project, including its multifamily portions, have peaked along Glenwood and Portland avenues.

The Lodge initially began with demolition works in 2021, combining eight plots which previously housed detached houses, a car park and ancillary buildings. Then came funding delays caused by skyrocketing construction costs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The site remained inactive for over a year.

Most recently, affordable housing specialist Rea Ventures closed development financing with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs to construct 42 units of affordable housing on site. This also allowed the larger project to continue, and construction now covers the block-sized site.

Rea Ventures is developing the distinct residential component of The Lodge, called The Abbington at Ormewood Park. Across the site, plans call for the new four-story structure and two smaller buildings to include a mix of studio to three-bedroom rentals.

For 30 years, rents will be limited to 30 percent of income for those earning between 30 and 80 percent of the area median income. Across the project, developers are aiming for an AMI of 60 percent on average for residents to ensure income diversity, officials previously told Urbanize Atlanta.

That means the largest units, the three-bedroom options, should rent for between $583 and $1,500, according to the development team. Funding from the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, Invest Atlanta and Partners for Home helps make the project financially feasible.

The Lodge’s retail and office spaces, meanwhile, are being developed by a joint venture between Clark Property R+D, King Properties, Porch & Square and RAD Group.

Project officials said in January that the Lodge’s 33,000 square feet of office, retail, restaurant and events space was 67 percent pre-leased through Properties of the King. No tenant announcement has been made, despite repeated and persistent requests for additional information.

More than half of this commercial space will consist of adaptive reuse of the existing Masonic Lodge and a historic home on site, which should result in faster construction timelines. Officials said in January that construction on the commercial component would begin in late spring, with a goal of completion by the end of 2024.

The project’s name honors a former Masonic lodge on Moreland Avenue that has been vacant for years but remains structurally sound, developers said. It was built in 1947 and used as a Masonic Grand Lodge upstairs with a Kroger on street level.

Go to the gallery for more context and updated construction photos.

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