NRP Group Calls Off Apartment Project Near BeltLine Eastside Trail

A Cleveland-based housing developer has abandoned plans for an apartment project along the Eastside BeltLine in Reynoldstown.

The NRP Group is no longer pursuing plans to replace the Colgate Mattress factory building at 220 Pearl St. with a 215-unit apartment building, said Patty McGill, whose The McGill Co. is now marketing the 63K SF warehouse for sale or lease.

“They weren’t able to get the deal done. They’re not involved with it any longer,” McGill said. “They were having difficulty getting capital together.”

Calls to NRP weren't returned as of press time. Urbanize Atlanta was the first to report the story. The developer was the ninth-most-active multifamily builder in the U.S. last year, starting work on more than 5,000 units, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council. 

NRP in 2022 revealed its plans for the project, set to be its debut in Atlanta. It expected to buy the 2.7-acre parcel behind the Modera Reynoldstown apartment complex along Memorial Drive and develop a building that would have seen 10% of its units set aside for renters earning 60% of the area median income, Urbanize reported.

Colgate Mattress, which makes crib mattresses and changing pads, still operates out of the facility, which was built in 1955. It sits less than two blocks from the Atlanta BeltLine Eastside Trail.

Construction of apartments has slowed over the past year as interest rates have risen and banks have scaled back their lending, but there are also record levels of supply nearing delivery.

Roughly 670,000 new multifamily units are expected to hit the market in 2024 across the country, according to RealPage, after almost 440,000 units delivered in 2023.

Atlanta is far from immune to the rapidly changing supply-demand dynamics. The median rent for a one-bedroom unit is $1,532, down by 5.6% from the previous year, according to Apartment List. The rate fell 1.3% in 2022 after a 16.8% increase in 2021.