Images: Affordable housing venture rising up near Georgia Tech

A year after its official groundbreaking, a project with nearly 200 apartments that meet affordability standards is taking shape just west of downtown and Midtown, with a goal of offering walkability to a growing list of job hubs and Westside amenities.

The new building marks the second and largest phase of Herndon Square, a mixed-income, master-planned 12-acre redevelopment of the former Herndon Homes public housing site.

The English Avenue project is rising along Northside Drive, next to the expanded Science Square district and a few blocks southwest of Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd Stadium. The Beltline’s Westside Connector Trail is located about two blocks west.

Affordable housing developer Pennrose has partnered with Hunt Companies, Oakwood Development, Atlanta Housing, and city agencies on the development. Invest Atlanta approved $41.5 million in tax-exempt bond financing to help develop the apartments in 2023.

Project leaders have said Herndon Square’s second phase will see 201 one and two-bedroom apartments total, plus 10,000 square feet of commercial space designated for resident programming. 

An enclosed parking deck, the first component to top out, will also be included.

Just 30 apartments are expected to be market-rate. The other 170 will be considered Low Income Housing Tax Credit units, reserved for individuals and families earning 30 to 80 percent of the area median income. 

Onside amenities will include a wellness clinic, fitness center, and computer business and learning center. At the project’s core, an interior courtyard with greenspace and a covered picnic area is intended to help residents socialize, officials have said. 

The schedule calls for opening Herndon Square’s phase two in spring 2026.

One goal of the project is to capitalize on recent and existing investments in the area—from Science Square and Echo Street West to the Signia by Hilton Hotel and Georgia World Congress Center—that collectively will account for more than 5,000 permanent jobs in coming years, per officials. 

Beyond the phase-two apartments, Herndon Square so far includes a 97-unit senior housing component that was quickly leased up. (The building's waitlist is currently closed, per developers.) 

Meanwhile, city officials, Atlanta Housing, and their development partners announced Friday they’ve closed on financing to move forward with Herndon Square phase three. That calls for a building with 178 more apartments, ranging from one to three bedrooms. 

Of those, Pennrose officials say 151 will also rent for between 30 and 80 percent AMI, and that 71 units will be supported by vouchers from Atlanta Housing’s Homeflex program.

Phase three “is part of a visionary redevelopment that comes at a crucial time for Atlanta’s historic Westside,” Will Eckstein, Pennrose’s regional vice president, said in project announcement last week. “Through our integration with Science Square, we're creating a national model that demonstrates how thoughtful development can preserve affordability while expanding economic opportunities and outcomes for residents of all incomes.”

Herndon Square’s full scope calls for 379 units of multifamily residential, 32 townhomes, and a 30,000-square-foot retail space on a section fronting Northside Drive.

That commercial component is expected to bring a neighborhood grocery option with fresh food access to English Avenue. But no timeline for that facet of development has been specified. 

Find more Herndon Square photos, renderings, and context in the gallery above. 

...

Follow us on social media: 

Twitter / Facebook/and now: Instagram  

• English Avenue news, discussion (Urbanize Atlanta)