Photograph by Erin Sintos
Stan Sugarman is only half-joking when he says there isn’t much left of the original Atlanta Motel building. After a yearlong renovation, the once-derelict Reynoldstown motel, nestled between Moreland Avenue and an I-20 on-ramp, is now home to an affordable housing complex named The Ralph David House.
Sugarman is cofounder of both Stryant Investments LLC and Stryant Construction Inc., companies that played crucial roles, as developer and general contractor, respectively, in transforming the rundown locale—once known for crime, drugs, and unsafe conditions—into solid footing for starting a new life.
“We went in there and found a lot of asbestos, lead paint, old mattresses, and toilets that had to be removed,” Sugarman says. “It took our crews three months to get everything out. It was a lot of work. But we wanted to create a place where we would want to sleep if we ever found ourselves in need of housing.”
The apartments at The Ralph David House are more than a roof and four walls. They are a reset button, reserved for Atlantans who have lived on the street and are scraping by on less than 30 percent of the area median income, a typical metric for measuring poverty. The housing complex is giving those most often left behind a shot at stability and dignity.
Walk the halls now, and the quiet movement of life hums from behind the refurbished building’s Mondrian-esque red, blue, and yellow doors. Inside, 300-square-foot apartments are equipped with air-conditioning and heating—salvation in a city of relentless summers and bone-chilling winters.
The Ralph David House is one piece of a larger housing push to reshape Atlanta. Backed by the $212 million Atlanta Rising plan, an ambitious project to address chronic homelessness, the City of Atlanta is working to create 500 rapid-housing units by year’s end.
Several such housing projects involve repurposing preexisting or modular structures. These include The Melody, a downtown housing community made from shipping containers, and 729 Bonaventure, a refurbished apartment building near Ponce City Market.
To develop this latest rapid-housing project, Stryant Investments purchased the Atlanta Motel for $3.2 million, using a loan from the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. It spent another $3.4 million renovating the property, drawing from grant funding from the City of Atlanta, Invest Atlanta, and Partners for Home. Atlanta Beltline Inc. pitched in $550,000 from Tax Allocation District funds—public dollars generated by rising property taxes along the Beltline—to help make the project possible. Stryant signed a 30-year contract to manage the property in late 2024, ensuring long-term stability for residents.
The project was completed in December 2024, and the first residents moved in last March. The Ralph David House, named after famed civil rights leader Ralph David Abernathy Sr., provides 56 low-income housing apartments. Their layouts adhere to federal accessibility guidelines, and 15 percent of units are fully designed for disabled residents, including wider doorways for wheelchair access.
Rent is calculated to be 30 percent of each resident’s income; Atlanta Housing pays the balance, and Stryant covers utilities. All residents have access to on-site social services and case managers who help them set goals and connect with resources. A host of local organizations provide further support: Mercy Care sends a street team for medical services; Flowing with Blessings Inc. has supplied a mobile laundry bus; and Leaven Kitchen provides a weekly meal.
Since tenants started moving in, Sugarman says he’s learned that life can change in an instant: “I have met people where homelessness wasn’t one bad decision. Life got to them.” He describes one such resident: a former firefighter who suffered a traumatic brain injury on the job and wound up homeless. “He’s on worker’s comp, but it’s not enough to live,” says Sugarman. “So we make sure he has food every day, and he has a counselor who checks in with him. To me, he’s a poster child for transforming what people think homelessness is versus what it really is.”
Sugarman says it doesn’t matter whether the home is a way station or the final destination. “We’re providing housing with grace and trying to provide a home where people can get back into life,” he says. “Where they’re not just trying to survive—they can actually live.”
This article appears in our November 2025 issue.
