An affordable housing project by Westside Future Fund is underway northwest of Downtown Atlanta.
The multi-family housing development at 839 Joseph E. Boone Boulevard includes a total of 33 units across four residential buildings, according to building permit applications filed with the city.
There will be one 12-unit building, one 9-unit building, and two 6-unit buildings. Each building will be three stories tall.
Westside Future Fund’s Chief Real Estate Officer Rachel Carey told What Now Atlanta that a groundbreaking will be held next month, with construction expected to be in full swing in January. The project should be complete around the end of 2024 or beginning of 2025.
“It’s really a highly visible project on an important corridor,” Carey said.
Units will range from studios to 3-bedroom units.
A commercial building with three tenant spaces is also part of the project, to be built on the part of the development facing Joseph E. Boone Boulevard. According to the application, the building includes approximately 1,200 square feet of future retail space. Cost of construction on this aspect of the development is projected to be $357,188.
Carey said they have an idea of the types of businesses they would like to see in those tenant spaces, including local Black-owned businesses.
Atlanta-based Kronberg Urbanists + Architects is the architecture firm behind the project. The team was involved with the development of Lee + White, an adaptive-reuse project in Atlanta’s West End.
Westside Future Fund is a nonprofit organization that aims to revitalize and redevelop neighborhoods in Atlanta’s Westside, with a focus on five in particular: English Avenue, Vine City, Ashview Heights, Atlanta University Center and Just Us. The organization was launched by the Atlanta Committee for Progress (ACP) in 2014.
The organization identifies tenants for its residential projects through Home on the Westside, a community-retention program that prioritizes legacy Westside residents, ensuring that current residents and those with ties to the neighborhoods benefit from revitalization efforts.
The upcoming Joseph E. Boone Boulevard project was highlighted in a Westside Future Fund 2022 Year in Review report, along with developments planned for 390 Sunset Avenue NW and 646 Echo Street NW.
Westside Future Fund was one of three recipients of a grant from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, receiving $10 million to support their campaign aimed at raising $55 million to accelerate affordable-housing targets they established in 2017.
[Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with information from Rachel Carey.]
