Now Under Construction, Floorplan options at Kirkwood’s Pullman Flats start under $200K—for 440 square feet.

The coveted Atlanta neighborhoods due east of downtown and Midtown haven’t seen a new building of exclusively for-sale condos take shape since America’s last financial crisis more than a decade ago, but an under-construction Kirkwood project hopes to change that, while bringing an aesthetic to the historic neighborhood that harks back to a much earlier era.

Boutique condo projects with townhome components have taken shape near the BeltLine’s Eastside Trail in recent years, lending more attainable homeownership options in places like Reynoldstown and Cabbagetown. They’ve joined a few larger all-condo ventures and ITP apartment conversions in Midtown, Atlantic Station, Buckhead, and elsewhere.

The 60-unit Pullman Flats in Kirkwood, named for the planned Pratt Pullman District entertainment complex across the street, hopes to stand out among a flurry of eastside apartment and townhome construction. It’s offering handy amenities and sub-$200,000 entry options for what, in some cases, are among the city’s smallest new for-sale homes in recent memory.

“I wanted to market and sell something different, bring another option of housing besides bungalows and townhomes,” says LaCressa Morrow, a Keller Williams Realty agent who recently launched Pullman Flats presales. “It’s been over 10 years since we’ve had a new construction condo development on the eastside of Atlanta, [and] I’m excited to bring affordable priced condos to Kirkwood. This is an opportunity for many who’ve been priced out of Midtown and other areas.”

Proxima Residential, the builder, has razed three one-story residential structures on the Rogers Street site and is finishing pre-construction work now. Permitting paperwork has been filed with the city, and vertical construction is expected to begin soon, with an estimated project delivery in late fall 2021, Morrow says.

With a brick-clad façade featuring oversized arched windows, Pullman Flats is aiming for a timeless style, with the bulk of condos positioned in a larger six-story stack away from the street. It will face the currently empty, southernmost piece of the 27-acre Pratt-Pullman Yard property, where Alliance Residential plans to build about 350 apartments on land it recently purchased from owners Atomic Entertainment. The condo building is designed by architecture firm McMillan Pazdan Smith, with interiors by Studio M.

The relative affordability Morrow mentions applies mainly to the Pullman Flats foot-in-the-door studio options; homes of any type priced less than $200,000 are virtually nonexistent in the Kirkwood area, though older units can often be found at that price point in nearby Decatur.

At Pullman Flats, the studio option is called the Coan floorplan (a nod to the city park around the corner), and it starts at $199,990 with $148 monthly HOA fees. That gets 441 square feet. Morrow is confident Atlantans will be eager for homes of that size despite the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown era, which has placed a premium on more space.

“Everyone has a different lifestyle,” Morrow says. “The studio isn’t for everyone, but it is for someone. The pandemic has allowed everyone time to figure out what works best for them, whether it’s upsizing or downsizing.”

On the flipside, the project’s largest two-bedroom plan—the Arizona—spans about 1,450 square feet, which Morrow notes is the average size of an Atlanta bungalow, minus the maintenance. Those start at $359,900.

In between are one-bedroom options, with the largest, the Downing, starting at $289,900. Perks include walk-out patios and kitchens marketed as gourmet.

Beyond the condos, the building will have a variety of spaces designed for social interaction, when doing such a thing is safe again. Expect a rooftop deck and grilling station, a communal terrace on the fourth floor, a clubroom with a bar, a fitness center, and a dog-washing room. Some initial drawings showed a pool, but those plans have apparently been nixed.

The section of Pullman Flats fronting the street will bring about 2,200 square feet for commercial uses, as will floor plates of 7,700 square feet on both the second and third levels above the street. Morrow notes that buildout options are flexible for a variety of potential tenants.

Pullman Flats is banking on the hope that, by its opening in late 2021, the pandemic will be a distant (bad) memory and Atlanta will be facing a dearth of new housing supply, as some developers are shelving projects now while others push ahead.

“We continue to interpret data which indicates market fundamentals remain strong,” says Morrow. “We’re already seeing July housing numbers rebound and expect good August results as well. [A] continued, prolonged bounce-back post-pandemic should occur as this six-month COVID market correction has been healthy for the previously overheated market.”