Atlanta advances redevelopment at public housing site in Chosewood Park
City of Atlanta officials and their development partners broke ground Tuesday on new housing in the Chosewood Park neighborhood, on land once used for public housing.
Mayor Andre Dickens and officials with Atlanta Housing, the Beltline, Invest Atlanta, Georgia Department of Community Affairs and Eddy Benoit Jr. — the president and CEO of The Benoit Group — attended the groundbreaking ceremony to mark the second phase of development.
The $87 million project will include 200 rental units, with 100 units of affordable housing and retail space.
Dickens, who is up for reelection in November, was at the site last year to celebrate the groundbreaking of senior housing at the 30-acre site. He said public-private partnerships were helping the city move closer to his goal of creating or preserving 20,000 affordable housing units by 2030.
In less than four years, the city has created more than 6,800 units of affordable housing units, with more than 5,000 under construction, according to the city’s Affordable Housing Tracker.
“When people say, ‘Build more affordable housing’ … I just had to name about 25 organizations just to build one development. All the capital that it takes, all the equity, all the loans, all the planning — it really is a testament to (the) commitment to get these things done,” Dickens said.
The housing is on land where the Englewood Manor public housing project once stood. Residents from the 324 units at the project, built in 1971, were moved out in 2007 “due to severe physical and social distress,” and the property was razed in 2009.
The project is in the city’s southeast and close to the Beltline Southside Trail.
Atlanta Housing said Englewood will include multiple phases and nearly 22,000 square feet of retail space, along with 160 units for seniors. Developers expect to complete those units in July.
In addition to the multifamily units, the development will include 102 owner-occupied homes, with 82 at market rate and 20 affordable homes.
Atlanta Housing said it had invested $7.75 million in infrastructure for the multifamily units and was overseeing a total of $29 million in infrastructure investments on the land.
Tiffany Cobb, deputy regional administrator for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Southeast, said the federal government’s investment in the project signaled a commitment to boost the city’s affordable housing supply.
“Englewood will bring homeownership opportunities alongside rental housing, giving residents real choices about their future through (Federal Housing Administration)-insured mortgages, down payment assistance and partnerships with local lenders,” Cobb said.
Eloisa Klementich, president and CEO of the city’s economic development arm, Invest Atlanta, added that Englewood was one of nearly 80 development projects within a half-mile radius of the site.
Klementich said the city had invested $150 million over five years and created more than 1,400 affordable housing units, resulting in an economic impact of $252 million in the community.
Invest Atlanta has used “several tools” to support the development, Klementich said, including a tax-exempt loan, a housing opportunity bond and Tax Allocation District, or TAD, funding.
She cited the findings of a 2023 study, “Housing at its Core.” It found the Atlanta metro core of Cobb, Clayton, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties grew by 9% since 2018. But that growth was outpaced by cost-burdened households, or those spending more than 30% of their income on housing, which increased 15%.
“Hence why this project is so important to support more affordable housing,” Klementich said.
About the Author
Matt Reynolds is a housing reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's local government team.
