For 19 years and counting, FCS has been partnering with the residents of Historic South Atlanta to create a flourishing neighborhood. In addition to developing numerous programs to support local families, FCS has worked with partners to construct and renovate more than 175 single-family homes in the neighborhood, helping to increase homeownership to more than 50 percent of these families and reducing the number of vacant properties to less than 75 houses.

In 2002, FCS acquired 3.5 acres of vacant land from the Atlanta Land Bank along the southern border of the Historic South Atlanta neighborhood.  In 2018, after years of dreaming about what could happen on this property, FCS engaged the Urban Land Institute’s mTAP program to complete a feasibility study for the site.

This process introduced FCS to a team of leaders that helped with skill sets and experience that FCS did not have on staff. ULI’s team included Mike Green, Inga Harmon, Ashley Jones, Julie Sellers, and Jason Snyder – who conceived of a mixed income housing concept that met the organization’s need to serve families, seniors, and single young adults within the community.

Jim Wehner (President, FCS), Jason Snyder, Mike Green, Inga Harmon, Ashley Jones, and Katie Delp (Executive Director, FCS)

The team executed a feasibility study which concluded that there is market demand for multi-family housing on the site and that it could be viably developed into 80-100 units, including a combination of triplexes, duplexes, and micro-units.  The study also included a clear proforma that helped FCS understand the development costs as well as renderings that helped create a vision of what could be.  The location, adjacent to APS’s Price Middle School is ideal for families with children in the Carver Cluster—and the mixed-income units will add another option for renters in the South Atlanta community.

With the feasibility study, market proforma and renderings in hand, FCS was able to enter into legitimate conversations (and later a joint venture) with Pennrose Properties, one of the nation’s largest producers of mixed-use and mixed-income multifamily housing, to build out this project.  In early 2019, FCS and Pennrose applied for just over $13M in 9% low income housing tax credits.  In early November 2019, the state awarded FCS the tax credits for the project for an 84 unit mixed-income complex on this once vacant and blighted property!

Jim Wehner, President of FCS gave a testimonial of the mTAP groups work, “The mTAP process was great from start to finish!  What we thought would be a helpful project for their learning, turned out to be a transformational project for our vision.  Their work changed the way we looked at our property and formed a foundation for its development.  In 2020, just 24 months after ULI’s mTAP, we will begin construction of a multifamily development that will provide affordable rental units to our neighborhood for years to come.”

An amazing testimonial and close to months of hard-work, research, strategy, and visioning that will pay dividends to the South Atlanta community.