Apartments for senior citizens will be built with the help of $4.2 million in tax breaks from DeKalb County.
The county's economic development board, Decide DeKalb, recently approved the incentives for The Holbrook of Decatur, which will include 200 units along Clairmont Road near North Druid Hills Road.
The tax incentive will save the developer, Solomon Development Services, about 36 percent on property taxes over the next 10 years, according to a fiscal impact analysis.
Ray Gilley, the president for Decide DeKalb, said the tax benefit is appropriate because there’s a need for more senior care homes in the county.
“This is the first facility we've seen of this kind built in DeKalb in a long time, and with our growing demographic of elderly residents, we felt it was a good time to build such a facility,” Gilley said Thursday.
The $67 million project will include 96 assisted living units, 71 independent living unites and 33 memory care units. Construction is scheduled for completion late this year.
A representative for Solomon Development Services, Jeanette Yosanovich, didn’t provide a comment.
The tax incentive redirects money that would have otherwise gone to the county government and school system.
But without it, Gilley said the project may have been delayed or not built at all.
"We only want to provide incentives where it's actually needed to make a difference, so that's why we always ask, 'Why do we need this?'" he said.
Decide DeKalb required the developer to set aside 10 percent of units for affordable housing, Gilley said.
The Holbrook of Decatur will create about 150 jobs with average annual salaries and benefits totaling $38,000, according to the fiscal analysis conducted for Decide DeKalb. The developer didn’t provide information about wages without benefits included.
After accounting for the tax incentive, The Holbrook of Decatur will still pay $7.5 million in property taxes over the next decade.
Decide DeKalb’s board, which is appointed by the county’s commissioners and CEO, approved the tax break during its March 9 meeting. The project will be built at the corner of Clairmont Road and McConnell Drive in unincorporated DeKalb.
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