Photos: Memorial Drive’s next large project, Songbird, starts rising

Josh Green

Tue, 05/20/2025 – 13:10

A large townhome development with approachable price points—relatively speaking—is beginning to make its mark along amorphous Memorial Drive, east of the Atlanta Beltline and downtown.

Empire Communities, a Canada-based homebuilder with active development sites and finished projects across Atlanta, has recently begun vertical construction on Songbird, the company’s third venture within a few blocks of Memorial Drive on the eastside.

The deep, 3.6-acre site—situated where Kirkwood meets Parkview—was formerly the Stanton Grove Baptist Church property at 2011 and 2015 Memorial Drive. Songbird’s site plan calls for 81 townhomes overall.

Empire officials say sales are scheduled to begin in the next couple of weeks, and prices will start in the high $300,000s and top out in the low $400,000s.

Vertical construction progress at the future entry to Empire Songbird today. Lola Green; Urbanize Atlanta

How the Songbird entry is expected to look upon completion, according to new renderings. Courtesy of Empire Communities

None of the townhomes will be especially large—either two or three bedrooms, with between 1,171 and 1,360 square feet—by Atlanta standards, but vast square footage isn’t always a selling point.

Empire officials point to bus transit access into downtown as one selling point of the location, along with walkability to multiple eastside neighborhoods and proximity to the Beltline to the west.

The Songbird name was inspired by the trees retained on site and a new dedicated greenspace that will be built at the entrance to the townhome community, near Memorial Drive, project officials have told Urbanize Atlanta.

A yellow farmhouse (now white) near the front of the property, facing Memorial Drive, has also been retained and renovated.

Recent aerial of the Songbird site, with the growing The Moderns townhome project pictured at top.Courtesy of Empire Communities

Courtesy of Empire Communities

Elsewhere along Memorial Drive, Empire also developed the rainbow-hued Paintbox community directly across the street and a single-family home project called Bixton across from Drew Charter School. Empire’s latest intown bet adds to a stock of hundreds of new townhomes in the pipeline now or recently developed along Memorial Drive and nearby blocks.

Kirkwood Neighbors Organization leadership previously told Urbanize Atlanta the neighborhood governing board stressed to Empire that Songbird should be both walkable and safe for cyclists, environmentally sustainable with shade, greenspace, and native plantings, and respectful of neighboring tree canopies and connections to the broader community.

The Songbird acreage in question was annexed into the City of Atlanta in 2021, and the property was later rezoned to the same designation (MR-3) that applied to the Paintbox project, which also replaced a church.

Paintbox—named Attached Community of the Year by the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association in 2021—has earned an average of 20 percent increases in values for current townhome owners, Empire leaders noted this week.

Soar up to the gallery for more fresh Songbird images and context.

The 2011 and 2015 Memorial Drive location, east of downtown, where Kirkwood meets the Parkview neighborhood. Google Maps