A 31-story tower expected to sprout downtown is poised to deliver more than 400 apartments marketed to Atlanta’s educators and senior citizens. 

Developed by developer RBH Group and designed by S9 Architecture, the high-rise is slated to feature 229 rentals that could one day be packed with educators and other intown school employees, as well as 216 units of senior housing, “25,752 square feet of retail, 3,000 square feet of amenity space including classrooms, laundry, gym and lounge spaces and a 3,000-square-foot private rooftop area for residents,” according to a City of Atlanta press release.

Forty percent of the teacher-centric residential part of the project is projected to be priced for tenants earning no more than 60 percent of the area median income (AMI), 20 percent of the units will be priced for folks earning 80 percent of the AMI or less and the remainder will have market-rate rent prices.

To put that in perspective, the AMI for a single person household, per U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) materials, is clocked at $57,900, meaning 80 percent of the AMI would be $46,320 and 60 percent would be $34,740. A first-year Atlanta Public Schools teacher with a bachelor’s degree earns $48,086, according to the city.

It’s not exactly clear what city officials meant when they said the rentals will be “marketed to” educators — and whether that means leases could be given to non-education professionals — although they seem set on providing affordable spaces for people teaching Atlanta students who might not otherwise be able to afford to live in town.

“When teachers live near their schools, they become part of the community and play a greater role in the lives of their students,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said in a prepared statement. 

The senior housing element of the project — the price points of which have not been revealed — is also supposed to offer memory care and assisted living services, according to the press release. 

The educator-focused component of the development, which is dubbed “Teachers Village-Atlanta,” this week secured financing from Invest Atlanta to the tune of some $30 million, with $4 million coming from a local Tax Allocation District grant and another $26.63 million from tax-exempt bond funding. 

The 400,000-square-foot mixed-use community is expected to be completed by early 2023, although a groundbreaking date has not yet been announced.

In similar news, Invest Atlanta also this week approved financing for hundreds more affordable units around town, including in communities like Sweet Auburn, Capitol View and Almond Park, according to Atlanta City Councilman Matt Westmoreland.

(Header image, via S9 Architecture: A rendering of the planned Teachers Village-Atlanta.)