A luxury homebuilder wants to put a residential and retail development at the site of the Edwards frozen-dessert factory in DeKalb County’s Edgewood neighborhood.
Toll Brothers, of Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, plans to construct 450 apartments, 275 condominiums and 10,000 square feet of retail on the 11-acre site of Edwards Fine Foods, which is a short walk to the Edgewood/Candler Park MARTA rail station.
Toll Brothers’ Thrive Residential subsidiary has the property under contract, but the sale has not closed, said division president Chris Rudd. He declined to disclose the sales price or additional details.
“We are very early in the process,” Rudd said in an emailed statement.
It’s the latest example of private developers converting former intown industrial sites into mixed-use projects like The Works on Chattahoochee Avenue.
Local governments have tried to preserve some properties for affordable housing, so the new developments don’t chase out longtime residents. The city of Atlanta last year bought two industrial sites along the southwestern segment of the Beltline.
Last week, Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley and a Chicago housing investor pledged $100 million to preserve affordable housing at sites located near MARTA rail stations. Toll Brothers did not say if the Edwards project will include affordable units.
Toll Brothers estimates the project would be completed in 2023, according to documents filed with the state Department of Community Affairs. It did not provide an estimate of when construction would begin.
Schwan’s Company, based in Marshall, Minnesota, has owned the facility since 2001 when it bought Edwards Fine Foods. The plant opened in 1963.
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