Second phase of public housing redevelopment set for groundbreaking

At the site of Atlanta’s last major family housing project, another long-vacant section is expected to be teeming with new life this week.

A formal groundbreaking is scheduled Thursday morning for the second phase of Bowen Homes’ redevelopment, which calls for another 112 apartments, the majority of them capped at rates deemed affordable.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, Atlanta Housing president and CEO Terri M. Lee, and HUD deputy regional administrator Tiffany Cobb, among other dignitaries, are expected to lead the groundbreaking.

According to Atlanta Housing, a new name for the 74-acre former Bowen Homes property will also be unveiled during the ceremony. The name was picked after “extensive community input, research, and stakeholder collaboration,” and it aims to pay “tribute to the forgotten voices of Atlanta's history, honoring the Bowen family’s legacy and the spirit of the former Bowen Homes community,” per the housing agency.

Real Property Research Group/The Benoit Group

The Bowen Homes redevelopment’s $64-million initial phase broke ground in March last year, with 151 apartments in the pipeline—the first injection of thousands of new apartments, townhomes, and standalone houses eventually planned across roughly a dozen phases.

For the second phase, new construction will replace a vacant site along Yates Drive and Wilkes Circle NW that once housed 650 public housing units. It’s just north of Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway, roughly a mile within the Interstate 285 loop, west of Midtown.

The second phase calls for a mix of townhomes and apartments in a mid-rise building, ranging from one to three-bedroom options, according to an analysis of the Bowen Homes site by Real Property Research Group. (Two rentals with four bedrooms will also be in the mix.)

Of the 112 rentals planned, 69 will be reserved for households earning up to 60 percent of the Area Median Income and will also qualify for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program.

Beyond that, 10 units will be considered workforce housing, and the remaining 33 will be unrestricted, market-rate housing options, per the analysis.

Rentals at phase two will range from 714 to 1,905 square feet, with proposed rents of $1,050 to $1,506 before subsidies.

Amenities call for a coworking space, media room, children’s study area, fitness center, an outdoor social space with grills, and a parking garage with an elevator. Unlike 13 of 18 comp properties studied in the Real Property Research Group analysis, phase two won’t include a swimming pool.

“The coworking space is unique to the market and will be appealing to renters,” wrote market researchers, “while the gated ground floor parking garage with elevator access will also be unique to the market and very appealing to renters.”

Back in 2009, Bowen Homes became the last of Atlanta’s housing projects to be razed, and prior to recent construction, the site had been vacant ever since.

General overview of planned Bowen Homes redevelopment across all phases. Real Property Research Group/The Benoit Group

In late 2022, Atlanta Housing selected a redevelopment team called Bowen District Developers—led by The Benoit Group and McCormack Baron Salazar real estate companies—to bring the area back to life.

Atlanta Housing and officials with Dickens' administration formally applied in early 2023 for a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant. In the summer of that year, HUD announced a $40 million federal grant to kickstart Atlanta’s Bowen Choice Neighborhood program, a revitalization effort for the former Bowen Homes and surrounding Westside properties.

The HUD grant aims to help the City of Atlanta eventually transform the bones of Bowen Homes into more than 2,000 housing units for renters and homebuyers, officials have said.

The project’s considerable scope calls for rebuilding the Bowen Homes site and next-door neighborhood Carey Park, along with a section of Almond Park.

Of the 151 apartments planned for the development’s initial phase, 48 will be reserved for households earning 30 percent of the Area Median Income, while 49 will be capped at 60 percent AMI. The rest will rent at market-rate, according to Invest Atlanta.

Detailed breakdown of expected unit sizes and rents at the former Bowen Homes' second phase. Real Property Research Group/The Benoit Group