RangeWater Sets Up for Suburban Atlanta Apartments
The developer purchased four acres to build a community with more than 250 units.
RangeWater Real Estate has acquired four acres in Lilburn, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta, where it plans to develop a 269-unit community. The company is developing the project in partnership with TMGRI, a subsidiary of The Meridian Group.
The community, which doesn’t have a name yet, will offer studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom units measuring from 537 to 1,578 square feet. Common-area amenities will include a gym and wellness facility, coworking spaces, a dog spa, a resident bar and a lounge with vaulted ceilings.
There will be three courtyard houses allowing residents direct access to a swimming pool, outdoor grills, gardens for resident al-fresco dining and a public/private amphitheater-style courtyard. The property will also include a trailhead for residents and locals to traverse the Camp Creek Greenway Trail, which runs nearby.
The apartments will be located in downtown Lilburn, known locally as Old Town. The area has seen a number other developments recently, including other high-end residential developments, mixed-use projects on Main Street for new retail and restaurants, and a retirement community.
The RangeWater project is expected to break ground in March or April, with completion slated for late 2026. According to the developer, the project design borrows aesthetic elements from both historic downtown Lilburn and the golden age of rail, which was central to the creation of the city in the late 19th century.
Atlanta-based RangeWater has acquired and developed more than 36,000 multifamily units since its inception in 2006. Its portfolio includes multifamily, build-to-rent and mixed-use real estate assets in the Sun Belt and Mountain West.
Atlanta multifamily slows
Atlanta’s multifamily fundamentals turned in a mixed performance in 2024, according to Yardi Matrix, even as development continued at a healthy clip. The metro’s occupancy rate for stabilized properties remained unchanged year-over-year, at 92.7 percent, as of October.
Developers delivered 17,214 units for the year through November 2024, or 3.2 percent of existing stock, which is 50 basis points above the U.S. figure, the same report noted. Only 2023 had a higher total expansion of the Atlanta multifamily market in the last decade, a year when developers added 3.7 percent to existing stock. Most of the completions were in suburban submarkets in 2024.
Atlanta’s average advertised asking rents contracted 0.5 percent on a trailing three-month basis through November, to $1,630, and year-over-year, the decline was 2.6 percent. That is compared with an uptick of 0.9 percent for rents nationally for the year.
