New housing at Scholars Landing builds upon mixed-income ‘Atlanta model’

If housing opportunities were a layer cake, Egbert Perry would say we’ve been slicing it incorrectly for generations.

Each cake layer represents income, and most housing communities throughout history have catered to only one wealth bracket, whether it be subsidized public housing for the poorest layer or gated communities for the rich frosting on top.

Perry said cutting those layers horizontally and separating people solely by their wealth has repeatedly failed, concentrating poverty without a support network. As the chairman of Atlanta-based developer Integral Group, he said that model had to change.

“The notion that we’re going to institutionalize poor people and create what we had been creating for all these years didn’t make any sense,” he told a gathering of more than 100 Atlanta officials and dignitaries Tuesday.

Integral Group developed the mixed-income housing model in the mid-1990s — which would go on to be known as the “Atlanta model” — by replacing aging and dangerous public housing complexes with communities of varying economic status. Integral continues to iterate and pursue its new model through a massive venture west of downtown Atlanta at one of the city’s most historic — and infamous — housing sites.

Credit: The Integral Group

Credit: The Integral Group

The developer broke ground Tuesday on the second phase of Scholars Landing, which aims to build hundreds of mixed-income housing units on the site of the country’s first public housing project for Black Americans. Integral is building 212 new units and more than 240 parking spaces, which will join 135 apartments and 160 senior housing units that opened in recent years.

Mayor Andre Dickens said at a ceremonial groundbreaking ceremony that the project is poised to create community through offering a place for people of all backgrounds to live next to one another.

”(This is) an intergenerational community that can comfortably house anyone, from students to professionals to retirees,” he said. “That is a full community.”

Credit: Miguel Martinez

Reimagining public housing

Scholars Landing sits on the historic site of the former University Homes complex, which was the first public housing project for Black Americans in the country. It was completed in 1937 and stood for more than 70 years until it was torn down in 2009.

Integral got involved with the site the next year, already having experience with redeveloping former public housing into a multi-generational mix of rental and single-family units. One of the group’s initial projects was the redevelopment of Techwood Homes, the first public housing in the U.S.

The complex — constructed only for white residents — opened in the 1930s, shortly before University Homes. It sat next to Georgia Tech and the Coca-Cola headquarters, but by the 1990s, it had fallen into disrepair and crime and poverty soared. Shortly before the 1996 Olympics, Techwood Homes was knocked down.

Credit: Frank Niemeir / The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Without intentionality, left to its own devices, the market does not solve the problems that we have as a society, because we privatized profits and we socialized the costs of making those profits,” Perry told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the downward spiral of Techwood Homes.

Integral started redeveloping the site in 1994 into Centennial Place, which now consists of mixed-income apartments, single-family townhomes, student housing, a charter school, a YMCA and other amenities.

Integral is using the model they created with Centennial Place and applying it now in the westside with Scholars Landing. The Atlanta Housing Authority still owns the land where University Homes sat, but has given a multi-decade ground lease to Integral.

University Homes residents were given the first chance to apply for the subsidized housing, which includes units reserved for people making 60% of the area median income — $42,900 for an individual and $61,260 for a family of four.

Some University Homes residents have returned to the new developments, according to Integral’s President of Real Estate, Vicki Lundy Wilbon.

Creating ‘a gateway’

The Scholars Landing complex is funded through a mix of state, city, private and federal sources. Integral’s development budget for the second phase is a little more than $64 million. Each unit will cost more than $300,000 to build, because though more than half will be for low-income Atlantans, they are still being built like market-rate apartments.

“If we made flat boxes that looked cheap, that’s going to have a different impact on the overall neighborhood,” said Trey Williams, Integral’s Vice President of Operations with the development division.

Credit: Miguel Martinez

Though Scholars Landing sits next to the Atlanta University Center, there are no dedicated student apartments unlike at Centennial Place.

After the second phase of Scholars Landing, Integral plans a third phase targeting new homeowners. Plans include 78 townhomes and condos, including many offered at discount rates.

Wilbon said Integral will continue to look at strategic acquisitions around Scholars Landing, with the eventual goal of creating “a gateway” from Northside Drive to fast-developing Vine City and West End neighborhoods.

“It’s knitting all these communities together,” she said.