A residential-conversion project years in the making is barreling ahead for a Westside property that played an important role in Jim Crow-era Atlanta. 

The adaptive-reuse project, Heritage Village at West Lake, is rehabbing and transforming a 1950s building at 239 West Lake Ave. into five stories of multifamily residences with unique goals, according to developers Columbia Residential and their partners Quest Community Development Organization. 

Spread across nearly 7 acres in the historic West Lake neighborhood, the formerly vacant property is located just north of Westview Cemetery and Interstate 20.

Status of exterior renovations earlier this year at the former Waluhaje Hotel. Google Maps

The Heritage Village at West Lake's location, between Westview Cemetery (bottom left) and Shirley Clarke Franklin Park (formerly Westside Park, at top). Google Maps

According to Atlanta Housing, a financial partner in the project, the building in question was originally developed in 1951 as the Waluhaje Hotel and Apartment Complex. During the South’s segregated era, the property served Black patrons and residents—and housed a large ballroom where many top jazz musicians of the era performed. 

The hotel and apartments were sold in 1967, and the property operated for decades as Atlanta Job Corps’ headquarters. That organization provided vocational, residential, and education services and training until closing in 2017. The following year, Columbia and Quest acquired the property from Job Corps via a joint venture. 

According to Columbia, the 61,300-square-foot conversion project will create 102 one-bedroom apartments, with a goal of providing modernized living options while preserving the site’s rich history. 

Of those apartments, 24 will be set aside specifically for single men and women, ages 18 to 24, who are aging out of the foster care system. Job and life skills training, an entrepreneurial incubator space, and other services and resources will be offered onsite, according to Quest officials. 

The project's scope also includes a community health clinic. 

The Heritage Village project will aim to allow “community rebuilding to start with the most vulnerable, hard-to-reach, and lower-income populations,” per a Quest project overview. 

Planned look of the Heritage Village's back facade at 239 W. Lake Ave.via Quest Community Development Organization

via Quest Community Development Organization

Atlanta Housing announced in July that more than $35 million in financing had closed to bring the project to fruition. It’s considered the agency’s first New Markets Tax Credit-financed development, and all units will be added to Atlanta Housing-assisted HomeFlex rental unit inventory once finished.                                            

According to Atlanta Housing, 100 percent of the apartments will be reserved for households earning no more than 30 percent of the area median income, including a portion for veterans and formerly homeless Atlantans. The remainder of the 6.8-acre property could be developed as future phases, per the agency. 

Other financial partners in the project include Westside Future Fund, Enterprise Community Partners, Corporation for Supportive Housing, Partners for HOME, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta, the Home Depot Foundation, and Truist Bank, among others. 

Find more context and imagery in the gallery above. 

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