Photos: How development is changing the prominent east side corner

With delays caused by exploding post-pandemic construction costs, The Lodge project broke ground earlier this year and has since transformed a once-vacant and blighted corner along a major north-south thoroughfare in Atlanta .

But what sits today where Ormewood Park meets East Atlanta Village, if the developers’ plans come to fruition, will be just the beginning.

The residential components of The Lodge project, including its multifamily portions, have peaked along Moreland, Glenwood and Portland avenues, with facade work either complete or well underway.

What makes this multifaceted project truly unique, however, is the former 1940s Masonic lodge, which remains structurally sound despite years of vacancy and neglect, project officials said.

Jesse Clark, managing director of Clark Property R+D, said the development team is currently awaiting building permit approvals for the commercial facets of The Lodge project, which will include the repurposing of the Masonic building for retail and catering.

Other commercial facets will include a new four-story office building with revised brick designs at the corner of Moreland and Glenwood avenues, and the adaptive reuse of a single-family home fronting Glenwood Avenue, according to Clark.

“We plan to begin construction (on these facets) when permits are approved, hopefully this summer,” Clark wrote to Urbanize Atlanta via email.

Plans for the corner building call for commercial space on the ground floor with three levels of offices above. Each floor will be blank or left as raw space for future tenants, according to project files recently submitted to the city.

The project’s name honors the Masonic lodge built in 1947 and used for years as a Masonic grand lodge upstairs with a Kroger at street level.

The Lodge initially began with demolition works in 2021, combining eight plots that previously housed detached homes, a parking lot and ancillary buildings. Then came funding delays caused by rising 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, allowing the project to proceed.

Rea Ventures is developing the distinct residential component of The Lodge, called The Abbington at Ormewood Park. Across the site, plans call for a 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% on average for residents to ensure income diversity, officials previously told Urbanize.

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.

Find more pop-up and aerial photos of The Lodge today in the gallery above.

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