West Midtown’s Interlock project could claim another $5.4M in tax abatement

Another major private development appears to have secured tax incentives to support its construction.

In West Midtown, where Howell Mill Road meets 14th Street, developer S.J. Collins is moving forward with the $450 million Interlock mixed-use complex, which promises 200,000 square feet of office space, more than 100,000 square feet of retail, apartments, townhomes, and hotel rooms.

Last month, the Development Authority of Fulton County voted to award a 10-year, $5.4 million tax break to help propel the project’s second phase, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

That tax abatement, though, is contingent on S.J. Collins making some $5 million in infrastructure improvements and delivering a 40,000-square-foot grocery store that officials hope will benefit a neighborhood now dotted with fast food.

But it’s not the first public help the private project has secured.

In 2018, Invest Atlanta granted the development a $7.5 million tax break for its first phase.

S.J. Collins reps have said the project is deserving of the public help because it’s expected to bring new vibrancy to the community west of Georgia Tech.

The move to award public assistance to the West Midtown development is the latest controversy involving tax breaks amidst Atlanta’s continuing economic surge.

Opponents of gifting tax breaks for private projects have argued that, in hot real estate markets, many of these major developments could get built without the public incentives.

Even with tax breaks in limbo, developer New City Properties—of 725 Ponce—is moving forward with a massive mixed-use development neighboring the Beltline’s Eastside Trail, paying credence to the idea that moves on prime real estate can materialize regardless.

Elsewhere, a major office project in Buckhead is progressing after the DAFC shot down developer Loudermilk Properties’s request for tax abatement, too.

Last year, Curbed Atlanta discovered renderings for a 161-key Marriott Tribute Portfolio hotel, which is expected to ascend 13 stories at the Interlock.

Parts of the Interlock are scheduled to begin opening later this year.