Post Centennial Park
A planned Post Properties apartment community in downtown Atlanta featuring a pet spa and rooftop pool that last year was approved for about $4.4 million in public grant money to help in its development is expected to come this week before the city's development agency seeking property tax breaks.
The board of Invest Atlanta will consider whether to approve a "lease-purchase" arrangement with Post, developer of the 438-unit community that will cover two city blocks near Centennial Olympic Park. As part of the deal, Post would be granted an estimated $4.6 million property tax break over 10 years in exchange for setting aside 10 percent of the units for "workforce housing."
The property tax break is the carrot in a city strategy to encourage developers of apartment towers to offer housing that Atlanta residents who make 80 percent of the average median income can afford. The aim is for better quality housing choices and to help grow the city’s population.
Between the property tax break being considered Thursday and the grant Invest Atlanta approved last year from the city’s Westside tax allocation district, or TAD, the Post development is being subsidized by about $9 million.
The parcels are currently underused parking lots that generate about $92,000 per year in property taxes. That figure would grow to an estimated $13.85 million over 10 years after deducting the projected tax break, Invest Atlanta documents state.
The total development cost of the project – which is now listed at 438 units, up from 407 as reported last year – has risen to an estimated $95.1 million, according to Invest Atlanta board documents.
The total public subsidy for the project – including the grant and tax break – would equal more than $20,000 per unit in the overall project, or looked at another way, about $200,000 per apartment designated as workforce housing.
According to Invest Atlanta documents, the project is expecting to command market rents ranging from $1,166 per month for studio apartments to $2,592 per month for units featuring three bedrooms and three bathrooms.
Workforce units would feature rents ranging from $955 per month for studio units to $1,418 per month for a three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment.
The Post development is part of a string of recent projects announced in the area of Centennial Olympic Park. And Mayor Kasim Reed has said a raft of new development is in the pipeline for the area.
The proposed downtown Hard Rock Hotel. Courtesy of Bolton Atlanta LP.
The Georgia World Congress Center is vetting proposals for a luxury hotel at the downtown convention center. A development team also is working on a Hard Rock Hotel near the new Falcons stadium.
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