An infill project envisioned as a new gateway to South Atlanta from the BeltLine, downtown, and the Westside has scored a financial boost from the city’s economic development arm.
The Invest Atlanta Board last month approved a $550,000 brownfield cleanup subgrant for Brownsville Pointe, a mixed-use proposal that would replace a vacant, arrow-shaped lot where McDonough Boulevard meets Jonesboro Road. The .53-acre site is situated about three miles south of downtown and a few blocks from the BeltLine’s Southside Trail corridor.
Focused Community Strategies, the landowner and developer, specializes in building equitable housing and commercial projects and has worked in South Atlanta for two decades. FCS also created small businesses Carver Market and Community Grounds Café across the street from the proposed development site.
According to Invest Atlanta, the $550,000 grant is being funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and is intended to remediate the South Atlanta site’s contamination prior to development, with vapor barriers installed.
The property was contaminated by its former use as a gas station and from nearby dry-cleaning facilities, which left material containing asbestos, per Invest Atlanta officials.
The brick-clad, triangular piece of Brownsville Pointe includes 2,765 square feet of retail at the base. Kronberg Urbanists + Architects
The 105 McDonough Boulevard project, as designed by Kronberg Urbanists + Architects, would see a flatiron-shaped commercial building at the corner with two taller residential structures behind it, along with street upgrades such as bicycle racks and additional parking.
FCS plans to invest $8 million in the project and create 25 jobs.
Plans call for two buildings standing three stories with 18 apartments total—12 of them reserved as affordable housing at 60 percent of the area median income or below. The two-story flatiron building will house a restaurant with below-market rents, per Invest Atlanta.
Project officials told Urbanize Atlanta last month the retail portion will be 2,765 square feet, with selling points that include 11 and 12-foot ceilings.
The property, which FCS purchased in 2018, most recently functioned as a gas station, but that closed years ago. The buried fuel tanks have been removed, and only the former convenience store portion remains standing, according to project heads.
In 2019, FCS floated plans for converting that building into a sit-down restaurant that didn’t come to fruition.
The Brownsville Pointe location in relation to South Downtown and the BeltLine's Southside Trail corridor. Google Maps
The concept, generally speaking, could look familiar to Atlanta development hawks.
In English Avenue, on the flipside of downtown, another Kronberg-designed project with a similar scope and blend of uses is under construction now, spearheaded by nonprofit Westside Future Fund. Meanwhile, in East Atlanta, another flatiron-shaped proposal has also recently come to light on a triangular site.
Find a closer look at the South Atlanta plans in the gallery above.
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• South of downtown, affordable housing venture declared finished (Urbanize Atlanta)