The real estate developer behind a new downtown apartment tower has a suggestion for generating more affordable housing — use cheaper building materials.
The 17-story Generation building, set to open in May, relies on lightweight steel for its structural base. The steel is cheaper than concrete, which allowed developer Kaplan Residential to reduce costs between 20% and 25% and set aside about 50 of Generation’s 336 units at affordable price levels.
Finding ways to lower construction costs is one method to help Atlanta meet a goal to create 20,000 affordable homes by 2026, said Nathan Kaplan, a principal at Generation’s developer Kaplan Residential. The average rent in metro Atlanta rose 35% between 2011 and 2017, while wages rose 15% in the same period, according to the Atlanta Regional Commission.
The city's affordable housing supply hasn't kept pace with its growing population, which rose 9% between 2010 and 2018, according to the Atlanta Regional Commission. Former Mayor Kasim Reed required developers to include affordable units in buildings to qualify for tax incentives. Current Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has pushed for public and private investors to back affordable developments, and the Atlanta City Council recently banned landlords from rejecting housing vouchers.
Kaplan Residential has partnered with the Atlanta Housing Authority to find tenants for its affordable units, using the agency’s new program to pre-screen housing applicants. Kaplan said he hopes his firm’s work with AHA will be used as an example for other developers about building affordable housing.
About 35 of the affordable apartments at the $90 million Generation project will be eligible for housing vouchers and 17 units will be available to families earning 80% of the average median income.Other apartments will be marketed as luxury units, with studios starting at $1,600 per month and two-bedrooms starting at $2,500 per month.
The lightweight steel used in Generation was developed by Prescient, a Charlotte, N.C., engineering firm. Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers used Prescient steel in its Osprey apartment tower in West Midtown. The first building made of Prescient steel opened in 2013 in Denver. Generation is built on a 5-story parking deck made of concrete but the rest of the building has a steel base.
The tower, located on Centennial Olympic Park Drive, is a sign that Midtown’s turbo-charged growth is inching southward, said David Marvin, president of Legacy Ventures, which has developed downtown hotels and restaurants. Downtown is a hub for thousands of jobs, is easily walkable and features dozens of restaurants and bars, so it makes sense for housing to follow.
“Generation will prime the pump,” said Marvin, who’s not involved in the building’s development. “The final stage of development for downtown will be retail.”
Downtown has caught the eye of other developers, too. The Charleston, S.C., developer Greystar has launched a $125 million apartment building near Peachtree Center. Post Properties recently opened a $96 million residential development next to Centennial Olympic Park.
Generation will feature a rooftop deck with a large video screen, duck-pin bowling lanes and a lobby mural depicting Atlanta's history, Kaplan said. It's a 4-minute walk to Centennial Olympic Park and a 10-minute walk to the Civic Center MARTA station.
A legal dispute involving the sale of the Generation site blocked the project for years. Kaplan settled the dispute in 2018 and purchased the site later.
