Unique affordable housing ventures enter Westside pipeline

Last month, City of Atlanta and Westside Future Fund officials broke out the fancy shovels for a formal groundbreaking at 839 Joseph E. Boone Boulevard, a vacant lot where 33 apartments and street-side retail space are being built in English Avenue.

But we couldn’t help notice a couple of residential renderings displayed at the event that have nothing to do with the Joseph E. Boone Boulevard site, apart from sharing the same developer and neighborhood—and the same affordability mission.

With designs that are anything but cookie-cutter, the two English Avenue projects are being put together by Westside Future Fund, an Atlanta nonprofit organization comprised of public, private, and philanthropic partners that serves five Westside neighborhoods: Vine City, English Avenue, Ashview Heights, Atlanta University Center, and Just Us.

Together, the infill projects would bring 50 more units of affordable multifamily housing to English Avenue, with rents between 30 and 80 percent of the area median income, according to Candace Wheeler, Westside Future Fund spokesperson. It’s still relatively early in the development process, however.

“We expect to break ground on both projects within the next year and a 1/2,” Wheeler wrote via email.

Here’s a quick primer, based on what’s known so far:

646 Echo St.

Planned facades for the 646 Echo St. corner lot. Kronberg Urbanists + Architects

Situated a block west of the Westside BeltLine Connector trail and T.I.’s Trap Music Museum, this English Avenue project would bring 24 units with architecture that nods to Atlanta apartment buildings of a century ago.

That includes brick facades and generous balconies.

Kronberg Urbanists + Architects is designing the project—the same firm behind the aforementioned Joseph E. Boone Boulevard development, the under-construction, 42-unit Trust at Oakland City, and Finley Street Cottages, a pocket neighborhood that finished construction in Edgewood last year.

The 646 Echo St. location due west of Midtown. Google Maps

The 646 Echo St. corner lot shown in 2022, with construction cranes at English Avenue's Echo Street West project up the street. Google Maps

…

390 Sunset Ave.

The lone available rendering showing how 390 Sunset Ave. would meet challenging topography. eightvillage

On the same street Dr. Martin Luther King called home at the time of his death, this project is expected to deliver 26 units on a sloped lot tucked just north of Joseph E. Boone Boulevard.

Another area highlight, Vine City’s Rodney Cook Sr. Park, is situated about two blocks to the southeast.

The Sunset Avenue venture is being designed by Atlanta-based eightvillage, the firm behind an arts-focused church redo in College Park and other projects.

390 Sunset Ave.'s location in relation to Cook Park, at bottom. Google Maps