Forth Hotel and Social Club Opens Along Beltline in Old Fourth Ward

The busiest section of the Atlanta Beltline is now home to its first boutique hotel, a high-rise that aims to stand out in the trail’s growing urban landscape.

The Forth Atlanta opened last month at 800 Rankin St. NE, and the $150 million building makes a big statement. Rising 16 stories above historic Fourth Ward Park, the hotel’s glass walls and diamond-patterned concrete supports provide a unique façade along the Beltline’s Eastside Trail. Its interior is full of eclectic twists.

A rooftop bar is themed after a 1970s Italian nightclub. Inside Il Premio, the hotel’s Italian steakhouse and piano bar, the walls are adorned with a painting of a historic horse race in Siena. A social club room features a carefully curated record collection to encourage members to chat while flipping through vinyl.

The Forth Atlanta Hotel opened in June 2024, adding a boutique hotel to the Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside Trail. Courtesy of Matthew Williams/Forth Atlanta

Jim Irwin, president of the project’s developer, New City Properties, shared his inspirations during a tour in June, noting how the living room’s rustic fireplace had to be built first to accommodate the five-story chimney flue. Several pieces of art throughout the building, including a display of foxes in front of a mountain view, pay homage to some of his inspirations.

“It’s a bit like Wes Anderson mixed with the Natural History Museum,” he said of the atmosphere the Forth is trying to cultivate.

Many of the hotel’s amenities and features are tied to an attached social club, which Irwin said is a key part of the Forth’s identity. Membership in the club isn’t open yet, but Irwin said thousands of people have expressed interest and are on a waiting list.

He did not disclose the price of membership, although he said he was not competing with “the big country clubs around here that have six-figure membership fees.” Instead, he stressed that the Forth Social Club is designed to counter the exclusive aura of many private clubs.

“There’s so much hubris in this world,” Irwin said of hospitality. “We wanted to try to embody that idea of ​​moving forward together as a community.”

The hotel is part of New City’s Fourth Ward neighborhood, which also includes the 18-story Overline Residences apartment tower and a cluster of glass office buildings that house the headquarters of email marketing company Mailchimp. The four buildings share an underground parking garage with nearly 2,000 spaces.

Irwin is a veteran of Beltline development. He previously worked with Jamestown on the Ponce City market. He then started his own company in New City, developing 725 Ponce, the office tower above a new Kroger.

New City paid $34 million in 2019 to purchase the 12-acre site from Georgia Power for the latest project.

The Forth features 196 guest rooms, including 39 apartment-style rooms for extended stays. Facilities include an outdoor pool, fitness center, multiple saunas and steam rooms, a 350-person ballroom, and four food and beverage concepts.

Randy Cook, co-founder of Method Co., runs operations at Forth and said the restaurants feature a variety of cuisines. Il Premio, the Italian steakhouse, is complemented by a similarly themed cafe and bar, while a Mediterranean-inspired poolside restaurant Elektra and a rooftop cocktail bar are meant to offer different vibes.

Cook said Forth’s location in a walkable part of Atlanta offers a huge advantage.

“Living next to the Beltline is a game-changing experience,” he said. “There couldn’t be a better neighborhood or a better city to launch this project.”

This is New City’s first hotel and Irwin said the decision to focus on a boutique offering rather than partnering with a large hotel operator was an easy one. He said he wanted to have complete architectural control of the building to craft a unique vision, bringing in Stokes Architecture + Design. He also wanted to preserve his team’s vision for a more accessible social club.

“The goal is not to create a club for people who make a lot of money,” he said, adding that special membership rates will be offered to artists, nonprofit employees and municipal workers. “It’s for everyone.”