A two-phase, mixed-use project that aims to incorporate and preserve important historical structures in Sweet Auburn received a financial boost this week to assist with construction.
The Invest Atlanta Board of Directors has approved a Housing Opportunity Bond up to $3 million for Sweet Auburn Grande, another intown project being put together by Gorman and Company, a Wisconsin-based developer with expertise in building affordable housing.
Revised phase-one plans for Sweet Auburn Grande call for building 109 multifamily residences along Auburn Avenue—at the southeast corner of the Jesse Hill Jr. Drive intersection—with about 11,500 square feet of commercial space at street level.
The revised vision for Sweet Auburn Grande phase one, with the early 1900s office building preserved. Gorman & Company, via Invest Atlanta
Breakdown of Auburn Avenue Grande’s two-story phase one plans, and at left, phase two across the street. Invest Atlanta
The residential component will include 57 units, or more than half, reserved for tenants earning 50 percent of the area median income or less, according to Invest Atlanta.
Spread across the block’s corner, the mixed-use project would also incorporate the historic but long-vacant 229 Auburn building, which dates to the early 1900s and housed pioneering Black businesses, including Georgia’s first state-chartered Black bank, during the district’s heyday, as Saporta Report has relayed. Earlier plans had called for demolishing the office building.
Meanwhile, across the street, the project’s second phase calls for restoring two more historic buildings—including the 1920 Butler Street YMCA building—while adding an attractive public greenspace at the corner, at the base of the iconic John Lewis HERO Mural. (See renderings of the Good Trouble John Lewis Memorial Park, as it’s called, over here.)
State of the 1920 Butler Street YMCA today, once known as “Black city hall” for its…
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