Sold for $800,000, Now Six Apartments: An Atlanta Congregation’s Old Church Near the Beltline Gets a New Life

• The former Free Gospel Interdenominational Church in Reynoldstown, Atlanta, is being converted into six rental apartments
• Developer CDW Partners bought the 0.33-acre site from the church in 2021 for $800,000
• The building is about a block from the Beltline’s Eastside Trail
• The congregation moved to a new building in Lakewood

In October 2024 Urbanize Atlanta reported on the latest church building in the city to become housing. The former Free Gospel Interdenominational Church at 955/957 Wylie Street in Reynoldstown was being turned into six rental apartments.

The site is about one block from the Eastside Trail of the Atlanta Beltline, the trail and park network looping around the city. CDW Partners LLC bought the 0.33-acre property from the church in the summer of 2021 for $800,000.

The work included new doors and windows and exterior repairs. Neither a completion date nor rents had been announced, and one source described the construction as “a marathon”. The property had been the subject of code complaints since 2019 involving overgrowth, trash and other issues. The congregation itself had moved to a building on McWilliams Road in Lakewood.

The report placed the project within a wider Atlanta trend of converting former churches into homes, offices and cultural spaces. For a small site of a third of an acre, six apartments is a modest but real addition to the neighbourhood’s rental supply, created without demolishing the building that stood there.

The story shows one path a congregation can take: sell a building in a changing neighbourhood and relocate. It also shows the trade-off, since the new homes are rentals owned by a private developer rather than housing the church controls. Jamaican congregations in places like downtown Kingston or near new highways and tourism developments may face similar offers. Before selling, it is worth asking whether a lease, a joint venture or a mixed scheme could keep the church in the community and give members access to some of the homes.

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