Atlanta Housing again delays decision on Civic Center’s master developer – Atlanta Civic Circle

Previous Fourth Ward residents must wait a bit longer for the long-anticipated redevelopment of the enduring Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Middle, which has been sitting vacant for eight years, to maneuver ahead. 

Atlanta Housing CEO Eugene Jones advised Atlanta Civic Circle in March that the company would lastly resolve on a grasp developer at its April 27 board assembly to reinvent the 13-acre property as a residential and industrial hub, but it surely has simply bumped that call—but once more—to Could.

AH leaders are nonetheless “going by the most effective and last presents,” Jones stated in an e-mail. 

The AH board will vote on a grasp developer at its month-to-month board assembly in Could, and “instantly” negotiate the grasp growth settlement, he added. “As soon as that’s authorized, we transfer ahead with the financing and timeline. We’re very excited for the neighborhood and the town of Atlanta.”

The general public housing company, which purchased the property over 4 years in the past, had winnowed the developer candidates to a shortlist of 5 corporations by March after setting a Jan. 28 deadline for proposal submissions.

AH envisions a whole lot of latest reasonably priced residences for the bold redevelopment, in addition to resort rooms, eating places, retail choices and greenspace—and, after all, the well-known auditorium for which the Civic Middle is greatest recognized—based on an August request for {qualifications}.

However this isn’t the primary time AH has introduced the positioning’s redevelopment, solely to delay it. Developer Weingarten Realty (now Kimco Realty, after a latest merger) had contracted with AH to reimagine the Civic Middle property to the tune of $300 million in 2015, however then deserted the deal in 2016.

Jones and different AH officers have declined to touch upon pending bids for the job, however Jones advised Atlanta Civic Circle in August that Kimco Realty may nonetheless play a task within the Civic Middle’s redevelopment.

When Jones joined AH in 2019 from a place as CEO of the Chicago Housing Authority, his capacity to maneuver ahead the Civic Middle website’s redevelopment was a serious promoting level. AH’s success in realizing the challenge will likely be a measure of its efficiency beneath new management.

This isn’t the primary high-profile AH challenge to be pushed again not too long ago. The housing authority at its February board assembly indefinitely shelved an anticipated choice on a grasp developer for the long-awaited overhaul of the previous Bowen Properties public housing website on the Westside, Atlanta Civic Circle has beforehand reported.