Over 1,000 seniors and families will move into two new affordable communities in Southwest Atlanta starting Aug. 1, with the high-quality, $144 million properties designed to catalyze growth in the wider Greenbriar Mall area.
Dominium Development and other project leaders celebrated the opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday, the culmination of two years of construction.
Greenbriar falls into the city of Atlanta’s District 11, represented by Councilmember Marci Collier Overstreet, who played an instrumental role supporting the initiative. She described the neighborhood located at the intersection of 285 and I-66 as “pivotal” and a “prime location,” especially for workforce members looking to live near their jobs.
Briar Park provides 244 units for residents aged 55 or above, while The Paramount offers 240 units targeted toward families. Both income-restricted properties include a mix of single and multi-bedroom apartments that are affordable at 60% area median income — rents range from $1,113 to $1,511.
“It’s absolutely beautiful,” Overstreet said. “It’s massive, and it really does set the tone of the type of development we need in Southwest Atlanta in order to spur more development and bring about more amenities.”
Mayor Andre Dickens, who grew up shopping at Greenbriar Mall, called the new projects a “home run” toward his goal of producing and preserving 20,000 units of affordable housing by 2030.
“Big things are happening, big things are coming our way on the South side,” Dickens said. “Southwest Atlanta holds a special place in my heart.”
Credit: Merrill Hart
Credit: Merrill Hart
The Greenbriar pocket of Atlanta is about 95% Black, with 17.4% of District 11 population below the poverty line from 2018 to 2022. Median rent in the district comes in around $1,157, and median household income for the census tract is $35,104.
Greenbriar Mall, once home of the original Chick-fil-A, has faced declining foot traffic over the last decade. Chick-fil-A left last year following the 2021 departure of Macy’s, the mall’s last anchor store.
The directly adjacent housing complexes replace a vacant Magic Johnson movie theater that shuttered during the 2009 recession.
With successful preleasing over the past few months, nearly all of Dominium’s units are rented. Briar Park currently has 17 open apartments and The Paramount has one unit available.
“It really just speaks to the dire affordability need in the Greenbriar area,” said Shaun Reinhardt, vice president and project partner at Dominium.
Tenants must earn a minimum of 2.5 times the monthly rent amount to qualify, with an income cap at $45,180 for a single resident household at both locations.
The project was funded by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs allocation of low-income housing tax credits, along with tax-exempt private activity bonds issued by Invest Atlanta and Milledgeville Housing Authority — all totaling roughly $78 million in equity, said Christopher Nunn, Georgia Department of Community Affairs commissioner.
Along with $31 million in bonds, Invest Atlanta also secured Opportunity Zone designation from the state to encourage economic growth in the Greenbriar area. Invest Atlanta President and CEO Eloisa Klementich said this effort works in tandem with the push for affordable housing.
“If we bring in more rooftops, more individuals with disposable income, then that’s much more attractive to the retailers,” Klementich said. “So it’s very much cyclical. These types of projects really will move the needle when we run the numbers for our retailers that are making decisions based completely, usually, on numbers.”
With increased foot traffic from new residents, Invest Atlanta particularly hopes to attract grocery stores to the area as part of the larger focus on ending food deserts across South Atlanta.
Since taking office in 2022, Dickens said the city has helped produce and preserve over 1,600 affordable housing units in the Greenbriar area, with over 3500 additional units planned or under construction.
Development amenities include a fitness center, theater room and fire pit area at Briar Park and a swimming pool, dog park and community garden at the Paramount. All apartments come with granite countertops and high-end appliances.
Project leaders and community members toured units in Briar Park following Tuesday’s ceremony, taking in interiors with clean, modern floor plans and an outdoor entertainment patio featuring bocce ball courts.
“Look at what affordable housing looks like right now,” Dickens said. “These developments that we’re building now are the types of developments everyone wants to live in — it’s quality.”
