Columbus Commons begins to rise from old BTW site (Savannah: fit in, section 8)

[Airforceguy]

The apartment complex will cover the northern half of the area where the 75-year-old Booker T. Washington Apartments sat since Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president. The southern half also has been cleared of the old, two-story brick apartments but is being left vacant and available for commercial development along busy Veterans Parkway and Victory Drive.

Williams said he has heard some interest in the property, but the authority is going to concentrate on getting the construction done on Columbus Commons before they move forward on the southern end.

The new complex will be a mix of Victorian and Savannah/Italianate architecture. All the buildings will be two-story, but some will offer upstairs and downstairs apartments, while others will have two-story townhouses.

“It will be a very visible project, something peopole can really be proud of,” Williams said. “I think it will fit in well with the Historic District in terms of architectural design.”

It is the second part of a two-phase project that began with Chapman Homes being replaced by Patriot Pointe, which caters to senior citizens.

In previous interviews, Williams has said the first phase was expected to cost about $15 million, with $9 million coming from federal and state tax credits, $4.4 million from the housing authority, $1 million from the consolidated government and a $600,000 mortgage, he said. The cost and funding is similar for Phase 2.

The city of Columbus is contributing a total $2.5 million toward the two phases. It will be paid with Community Development Block Grant funds instead of city general fund money.

While BTW Apartments had 392 units, Patriot Pointe has 100 and Columbus Commons will have 106. Residents displaced by the reduced number of units available will be offered units in one of the authority’s other complexes or in its Section 8 housing program.

The project, along with previous replacement projects at Peabody Apartments (now Ashley Station), Baker Village (now Arbor Pointe) and Chapman Homes (now Patriot Pointe) are part of a trend in public housing around the nation in which traditional public housing projects are replaced with mixed-income complexes that are more upscale.

The revitalization project has been talked about for at least six years. It got off to a rocky start three years ago with the Housing Authority’s initial plan to combine the rebuilding project with a revitalization plan for the Liberty District.

Liberty District stakeholders objected vehemently to the plan, which would have put some of the new public housing units around the old theater district, which then and now has practically no residential development and very little in the way of business.


Read more here: Framing rises from site of old Booker T. Washington Apartments, to be called Columbus Commons | Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

Framing rises from site of old Booker T. Washington Apartments, to be called Columbus Commons | Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

[Fountain-of-youth]

Game changer for the downtown south commons area. More to come!