Latest news straight to you
Get our free weekly newsletter on important housing and democracy news every Thursday afternoon.
The city of Atlanta has closed on its purchase of downtown’s 2 Peachtree Street office tower from the state of Georgia, and Mayor Andre Dickens’ top housing official told Atlanta Civic Circle that it will retrofit a “big chunk” of the 41-story building for affordable housing—including units priced for the city’s lowest-income residents.
When Dickens announced in October plans to buy and rehab the circa-1966 skyscraper—Atlanta’s tallest building before the Westin Peachtree Plaza came along in 1976—he promised the resulting mixed-use complex would make a “huge leap forward” toward his goal to build and renovate 20,000 affordable housing units by 2030. Two Peachtree, located next to the Five Points MARTA station, will also have office and retail space.
While details are still scant, Joshua Humphries, the mayor’s director of housing and community development, shed a little light on the city’s intentions for the massive skyscraper, which has one million square feet of space, in an interview Friday.
“A large percentage of the [residential] units will be affordable,” he said. “And because of the sheer size of the building, we’re talking about upwards of 500 total units.”
That will include a still-undetermined number of “deeply affordable” units, priced for people earning less than half of the area median income, which is roughly $48,200 for a family of four, according to the city’s October announcement.
The goal, Humphries said, is for 2 Peachtree to serve as an anchor for revitalizing downtown by adding residential living options for every income level adjacent to MARTA’s rail hub.
“We want downtown to be a great place to live, and part of that is having people of all incomes living down there,” he said.
The city’s economic development arm, Invest Atlanta, purchased the building for $39 million from the state, using funding from the city’s Eastside Tax Allocation District, according to a Feb. 16 announcement from the city.
Invest Atlanta will hold the building as a real estate asset until the city selects a redevelopment partner, the announcement said. It’s currently drafting a request for proposals for the project’s residential component, and developers should be able to apply for the job at the end of March, Invest Atlanta spokesperson Katrice Hines told Atlanta Civic Circle.
Once renovated, 2 Peachtree will be Atlanta’s tallest residential building, according to the city.
The city is making a good faith effort. But let’s face it this place will be “The Carter” Apartments in 10 years. For the benefit of our younger readers it’s from a movie called New Jack City.