Beltline buys Reynoldstown lofts for affordable housing

• Joeff Davis
• Triumph Lofts, which abuts the Atlanta Beltline, has a new owner — the Beltline!

It's been a rough few years for the Triumph Lofts, the 30-unit condo complex on Memorial Drive on the edge of Reynoldstown.

Just as developers put the finishing touches — stainless steel appliances, hardwood floors, all the trappings of a modern loft — on the renovated motorcycle-parts warehouse, the housing market collapsed. Then it got hit by a tornado. Then its developers reportedly had to wrestle with the feds after its lender bank failed. Sometime in the last year or two, the property, which features a pool, rooftop deck and a hot, hot, hot location along the Atlanta Beltline, fell into receivership. Since then, the property has sat virtually empty and in limbo, like much of Memorial Drive, which had been on the cusp of revitalization during the housing market boom.

"That building has pretty much sat there," says Jeff Landers, president of the Reynoldstown Civic Improvement League, a neighborhood association. "It’s pretty much finished. They just have to put people in it."

If things go according to plan, that'll soon happen. CL has learned that Atlanta Beltline Inc., the nonprofit tasked with planning and developing the 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit, purchased the loft complex several weeks ago for $3.7 million. According to Fulton County tax records, the property was purchased for $4.9 million in 2007 before its extensive renovation.

Beltline officials' plans? Self-storage units! No, just kidding. They plan to convert 28 of the loft's 30 condos — which, in 2007, were marketed for as much as $340,000 — into affordable housing. The other two units would be market price.