Near Atlanta airport, public-private partnership delivers 244 affordable rentals

An apartment community that’s under renovation near the Cleveland Avenue corridor aims to boost educational opportunities for students in a struggling neighborhood school as part of an innovative public-private structure.

On Wednesday, officials from Invest Atlanta and Atlanta Housing debuted 244 units affordable for low-income Atlantans in the Glenrose Heights neighborhood, just northeast of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

The project is part of a partnership between the city’s economic development and housing authorities, real estate investor TriStar—the owner—and nonprofit Star-C, which “assists economically disadvantaged families living in affordable housing communities by providing wraparound services ranging from after-school programs to healthcare,” according to a press release.

“We know that wraparound supports and family stability are critical factors that impact student learning and life outcomes,” Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent, Maria Carstarphen, said in a prepared statement.

It’s also benefiting from TriStar’s Community Impact Fund, which seeks to help curb student transiency at “high-need schools”—in this case, the nearby Cleveland Avenue Elementary.

Undergoing “extensive improvements,” the residential community received $1.5 million from Invest Atlanta’s Housing Opportunity Bond program—a blight-fighting initiative.

Those 244 apartments, split between two housing complexes called Springview and Summerdale, also count toward Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’s commitment to boost the city’s affordable housing stock by $1 billion worth of investments.

The Star-C model was piloted at a diverse Clarkston community called Willow Branch, and its founder, commercial and residential real estate vet Marjy Stagmeier, has ambitions of taking the program around metro Atlanta and possibly beyond.