The City of Atlanta is dangling one of its firehouses in front of developers in hopes of capitalizing on Midtown’s sizzling real estate market and adding to its stock of affordable housing.
Mayor Andre Dickens and the Atlanta Urban Development Corporation have officially kicked off efforts to swap Midtown Fire Station 15 with a mixed-use high-rise that features both affordable living options and a modernized new firehouse at its base.
It marks the first project for AUD, the nonprofit subsidiary of Atlanta Housing established to lead development of publicly owned land in the city.
City officials issued a Request for Qualifications, or RFQ, on Jan. 12 for developers capable of redeveloping the firehouse’s .78-acre property at 170 10th St.
Midtown Fire Station 15 as seen in January 2023, prior to vertical construction on the 32-story Modera Parkside tower next door, at right. Google Maps
Atlanta Urban Development Corporation
According to the RFQ, the fire station was built in 1986 and still functions as an essential facility in the heart of Midtown. But blocks around the station have been transformed into clusters of glassy high-rise buildings during a Midtown development boom that’s stretched for more than a decade. That includes the formerly empty parcel immediately next door, to the east, where Mill Creek Residential is erecting a 32-story tower called Modera Parkside.
The RFQ describes Midtown’s multifamily market as the strongest in the Southeast right now.
AUD is aiming to “redevelop the property into a dense, residential tower, incorporating both market [rate] and affordable units, with a newly built fire station on the ground floor,” reads the paperwork. John Majors, AUD’s CEO, said in an announcement the project could create a blueprint for remaking underutilized public land with multiple benefits, including “deeply, permanently affordable housing.”
Creating or preserving 20,000 units of…
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