Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens joined community leaders at a few events this week to celebrate the construction of more affordable housing in southwest Atlanta.
Dickens on Wednesday attended a groundbreaking ceremony for Briarwood — a mixed-use development that will have 87 three-story townhomes, a 30,000 square foot medical office building, and a 16,000 square foot commercial space. The Greenbriar community project already has 25 single mothers who pre-qualified for the affordable housing at the property, according to officials.
Briarwood was created in a partnership between the city, Invest Atlanta, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, the Chestnut Funds investment firm, Riddle Property Group, and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s GROWTH initiative.
“Briarwood (is) a development where generational wealth can start because wealth creation starts with homeownership,” said Riddle President and CEO Jeff Riddle.
Dawn Arnold, Invest Atlanta’s executive vice president & chief operating officer, said the city is preparing to host another groundbreaking in Greenbriar next week for more planned affordable housing. Across the street from Briarwood, the city is working with developers two build the Paramount and Briar Park housing communities.
Paramount will provide 240 multifamily units subsidized for families making 60% of the Atlanta metro area’s $86,200 median income, which is $51,720 for a household of four, according to the city. Briar Park will offer 244 units for senior citizens making 60% of the region’s median income as well.
Construction for all three projects is estimated to be completed next year.
And on Tuesday, Dickens joined Invest Atlanta, the Atlanta Housing Authority and other contributors for the grand opening of the Hartland Station housing community in the Sylvan Hills neighborhood. Hartland features 130 units and 52 of them are subsidized for families making 60% of the Atlanta metro area’s median income.
The mayor wants to create or preserve 20,000 affordable units in eight years. According to the Dickens administration, he has already supported the development or opening of nearly 1,500 affordable homes since taking office in January. He’s also committing $65.7 million toward Atlanta’s housing agenda.
Dickens, a native of southwest Atlanta’s Adamsville community, said it’s amazing to see so many new developments in Greenbriar.
“I’m telling developers ‘Get your shovel ready,’ because you see what we’re doing in Atlanta,” Dickens said. “We’re going to build or preserve those 20,000 units and we’re going to do it in a way that’s going to make everybody happy.”
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