The MCG Foundation got the ball rolling on the Choice Neighborhood planning grant now intended to replace the aging Allen Homes in east Augusta with affordable housing to the west.
But the effort, a partnership with the city, Augusta Housing Authority and others, and the continued effort to win the Choice implementation grant hasn’t been at the expense of the foundation’s longstanding plan to create a thriving gateway into the medical district.
The plan has been in the works since before the 15th Street Kroger closed its doors in 2017, and the foundation has a letter of intent from a new grocery to open across 15th, once the needed footprint is in place, Foundation CEO Ian Mercier told housing authority commissioners Thursday.
“One of the things we think that will help win that implementation grant is ‘doing, while planning,’” Mercier said. “All of this area is still considered underserved.”
Toward those ends Mercier presented a proposal to develop approximately 220 units of senior housing on land it owns between Chafee and Wrights avenue, just behind the Hub for Community Innovation off Walton Way.
The development would benefit from the “good work” going on at the Hub, he said, plus all the amenities found in modern affordable housing.
The project involves Birmingham-based Bloc Global, which had partnered with the Augusta Downtown Development Authority on the former Depot initiative and Louisville, Ky.-based workforce housing developer LDG Development.
The proposal is “an opportunity to bring residents into the 21st century in a way that’s more representative of affordable housing that we do today, said LDG Development Director Chris Byrd.
The resulting community will “uplift the community itself” and “bring residents together in a more meaningful way,” he said.
The project be LGD’s third in Augusta, after Peach Orchard Apartments on Peach Orchard Road and Horizon Ridge near Gate 5, Byrd said.
Most of the row housing along two blocks just west of the tract has been purchased by investors who “are very interested in walking alongside us and revitalizing this area,” Mercier said.
The development would be set back from surrounding single-family neighborhoods and consist of four-story buildings served by elevators and sided in brick and hardie board, not vinyl, said Bloc’s Mike Carpenter.
It could include features such as a “great lawn” and event venue and units would have open floor plans, granite countertops and stainless steel appliances, he said. It’s the same approach Bloc is using on a gateway development at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the officials said.
Mayor Garnett Johnson attended the presentation Thursday and said it was “a great conversation starter” on addressing housing needs.
“One of the No. 1 complaints we hear in the mayor’s office is about the stock of affordable housing,” Johnson said.
Mercier said in replacing the 150 units at Allen Homes, HUD expects at least twice that number to be built. The city of Augusta recently announced two proposed sites for them, on Baker Avenue and on the Augusta Canal near Taylor Street.
The housing authority is taking a new approach to issuing Section 8 vouchers as it prepares to reopen the waiting list, authority Deputy Director Douglas Freeman said. They anticipate opening the list for a week then randomly selecting 1,500 applications from those received, he said.
The authority also is no longer accepting residents at Dogwood Terrace apartments as it awaits approval to demolish the complex, he said.
