315 Apartments along Montgomery Street, Decatur GA

We have long argued (respectfully, of course) about the demand of the Decatur rental market around here.  That’s because up until this year, it was hard to get a real gauge of it due to such a low supply.  But now 315 West Ponce, Trinity Triangle and Paces Clairemont are all going up at the same time and we’ll soon get to see what a Decatur rental market looks like in 2015.

315 West Ponce is the furthest along and thus will provide us with a first look at demand.   The first phase, (aka The Place on Ponce) which sits along West Ponce has been complete for a month or so, while Phase II is well underway on the backside of the property. [Photo above]

Conor McNally with CarterUSA tells us that 20 of the 28 units in Phase I have been rented.  The Place on Ponce’s Facebook page states that all 2 bedroom units in Phase I have leased and only one bedroom units remain.  They are also beginning to pre-lease Phase II, which includes 1, 2 and 3 bedroom units.  Published rental rates last year for the 1-2 bedrooms in Phase I were between $1,400 – $2,500.

As for the Phase I retail space along Ponce, Conor tells us that one lease has already has been signed and one to two more are “almost ready to execute”.  Stay tuned for that.

How this demand ebbs and flows as these larger projects are completed and become available for rent is yet to be seen, but it should provide some greater context to our long-standing, ongoing conversation on the subject.