Affordable housing build delivers near dead mall property

As with other sites both OTP and squarely intown, another large underused metro Atlanta parking lot has been remade as housing.

Dominium, a national affordable housing developer, has scheduled a Friday ribbon-cutting for a 166-unit infill project called Shannon Reserve in Union City. It includes one five-story multifamily building and two adjacent cottages, each with four units.

The project is situated off Interstate 85, about eight miles southwest of Atlanta’s airport, on what was formerly a large, weedy asphalt parking lot. It’s also about a block from the closed former Union Station mall (originally Shannon Mall, when it opened in 1980) site. Atlanta Metro Studios operates on part of the former mall property today, offering 135,000 square feet of soundstages and other spaces.

Immediately north of the former mall, Union City hired Tulsa-based Manhattan Construction Company last fall to start building a section of its master-planned Reimagine Park Project, a mix of greenspace, a 3,000-seat amphitheater, and infrastructure such as parking.

Shannon Reserve/Dominium

Proximity of the Shannon Reserve site to the former Union Station mall (empty concrete oval) and Interstate 85. Google Maps

At the Shannon Reserve community, all one to three-bedroom apartments are being reserved for individuals and families earning no more than 60 percent of the Area Median Income, per Dominium reps.

The project’s website states the apartments are also reserved for renters age 55 and older.

The only apartment option listed as being available right now is a unit with two bedrooms and one and ½ bathrooms in 995 square feet, with monthly rents starting at $1,443. (A single renter in two-bedroom apartments at the property must earn between $34,632 and $48,000 annually, per the Shannon Reserve website. Housing vouchers from local providers are accepted.)

Renting stipulations require that at least one household member is age 55 or older, while all other occupants must be at least 40. (Sorry, kiddos).

Shannon Reserve’s communal perks include a salon, a theater room, a community garden, a gym, and a furnished art and crafts center, among other amenities.

Shannon Reserve/Dominium

The project was built by WD Construction and supported by the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, the country’s largest source of funding for construction and maintenance of affordable housing communities.

Affordable housing operators and developers, in exchange for LIHTC tax credits, agree to keep rents at levels tied to the Area Median Income.

Elsewhere in metro Atlanta, Dominium delivered two multifamily projects with nearly 500 total apartments on formerly underused sites adjacent to Greenbriar Mall two years ago.

Shannon Reserve/Dominium