Atlanta officials have launched a string of affordable housing projects that utilize unexpected resources. Hundreds of units are planned for the 41-story 2 Peachtree high-rise downtown while shipping containers once used for hospital overflow during COVID-19 will be given new life as a low-income community.
Now, city leaders want to revamp Fire Station 15 in the midtown neighborhood into a mixed-use site that features new fire facilities and hundreds of both market-rate and affordable housing units on top.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Last year, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens announced the formation of the Atlanta Urban Development Corporation subsidiary under The Atlanta Housing Authority. The new nonprofit was created to build mixed-income housing without the reliance on tax credits that are often used to develop affordable housing citywide.
The Atlanta Urban Development Corporation focuses on creating social housing, a European model where rentals are owned in part by the government to provide affordable housing. The city has recently been increasing the use of publicly-owned land for affordable housing projects, like the plans it has created for Thomasville Heights which is home to the embattled Forest Cove apartment complex.
The transformed fire rescue station on 170 10th Street into a mixed-income residential tower could offer 100 affordable rental units in Midtown — an area of the city where affordable housing options are rare. The city has said it wants to build 30 to 40 stories of housing above the station on the nearly .8-acre site.
The city announced Wednesday that the Atlanta Urban Development Corporation has launched the search to find a developer for the project.
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