Mercy Housing - Arnall Golden Gregory Successfully Paves the Way for Reynoldstown Senior

Challenge

Mercy Housing, a leading national non-profit developer of affordable housing, owns land in one of Atlanta’s hottest development areas – along the Atlanta BeltLine. The BeltLine is the most comprehensive transportation and economic development effort ever undertaken in the city and among the most ambitious redevelopment programs underway in the United States. The BeltLine will provide a network of public parks, multiuse trails and transit along a historic 22-mile railroad corridor circling downtown and connecting many neighborhoods. The project has caused property values to soar and spurred a construction boom in market-rate multifamily housing. But few multifamily projects on the BeltLine target the needs of low-income seniors. Reynoldstown Senior, a 70-unit midrise, will address that need. Working with Mercy Housing, Arnall Golden Gregory helped pave the way for Reynoldstown Senior’s construction.

Approach

Reynoldstown Senior is the last project to receive funds from the Invest Atlanta BeltLine Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which is funded with city-issued bonds. Arnall Golden Gregory negotiated all the financing documents for Reynoldstown Senior, which included grants, debt and equity from six different sources; helped Mercy Housing obtain site control; interacted with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD, a financing source), City of Atlanta (HOME funds), and Invest Atlanta, the city’s development authority; and secured federal and state tax credits.

Result

Reynoldstown Senior’s official groundbreaking occurred in April 2015 and construction is underway in the most active quadrant of the BeltLine. The development will provide affordable senior housing in a historic neighborhood that is rapidly gentrifying due to the continuing influx of young professionals.