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How Atlanta’s housing agency may hand a developer a $120m discount

AHA parcels such as this one have increased in value since the housing authority built nearby mixed-income projects in partnership with private developers. (HENRY TAYLOR / HENRY.TAYLOR@AJC.COM)
AHA parcels such as this one have increased in value since the housing authority built nearby mixed-income projects in partnership with private developers. (HENRY TAYLOR / HENRY.TAYLOR@AJC.COM)
By
Oct 13, 2017

The massive land deal was cut in 2011, but current Atlanta Housing Authority leadership said they only caught wind of it last year.

Control over one third of the vacant land holdings owned by the city's housing agency for the poor — some of it in prime, intown neighborhoods — had been optioned off to a local developer at a discount. None of it was promised for affordable homes.

How deep the discount would be was a mystery at the time. The terms were complicated, and no formal appraisals had been done.

But a  September analysis obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows that AHA officials think they have a figure: $120 million.

Read the AJC's story for details.

About the Author

Willoughby Mariano is an investigative reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where she focuses on housing and criminal justice issues. She previously worked for the AJC's PolitiFact Georgia, where she fact checked the claims of elected officials, and at the Orlando Sentinel, where she covered crime and breaking news.

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