By Eric Curl
April 10, 2023 – Housing Authority of Savannah officials say they are unable to move forward with plans to construct the next phases of mixed-income housing developments on downtown’s eastside.
In February, the housing authority terminated a 2019 agreement with the developer, Hunt Development Group, after both parties determined the five future phases of the housing developments were currently infeasible, according to housing authority officials.
Deputy Director Kenneth Clark said Monday that the agreement’s termination stems largely from financing issues related to the challenge of obtaining highly competitive state tax credits on top of issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation.
“We’re just dealing with a lot of factors right now that we didn’t have four or five years ago,” Clark said “And we just need to try to encourage as much creative and innovative thinking as we possibly can to be very expeditious in the delivery of affordable housing – not just on the land we own but throughout the city as well.”
The development agreement included the next phases of the River Pointe and The View at Oglethorpe communities, which were to be built on 27 acres left vacant following the demolition of public housing on the site for the redevelopment projects.
Completed in 2018, the first two phases of The View at Oglethorpe community included 137 affordable and 35 market-rate units on the former Wessels and Blackshear housing sites. The planned third phase was to add about 104 mixed‐income units and a retail component on 6.5 acres of land east of East Broad Street, north of Oglethorpe Avenue, and south of President Street.
The River Pointe community’s first phases include 280 rental assistance units following the 2017 rehabilitation of the former Wessels and Blackshear units. The next phase of River Pointe was to add 53 mixed‐income units close to the Wheaton Street and Waters Avenue intersection.
The redevelopment projects were part of the 2014 East Savannah Gateway Transformation Plan developed to revitalize the area bounded by East Broad Street to the west, President Street to the north, the Truman Parkway to the east, and Bolton Street to the south.
The agreement’s termination came after the developer’s 2021 application for a highly-competitive low-income housing tax credit program lost out to other agencies’ projects throughout the state. The developer then filed an application in June 2022 for project funding through the Georgia Investments in Housing Grant program, but that application was also unsuccessful.
Housing authority officials say they are continuing to plan for the best use of the vacant sites and exploring varied funding options in the upcoming year.
“The termination of the agreement gives the housing authority the ability to hopefully work with multiple developers to advance the redevelopment and look at some nontraditional finance scenarios,” Clark said.
The housing authority recently issued a request for qualifications to obtain developers for future development projects not only on the east Savannah gateway properties but throughout the city. In addition, a workshop has been scheduled in May to provide information to developers about leveraging federal funding programs for rent subsidized projects to increase the amount of affordable housing in Savannah.
Clark said they are hoping to get some creative concepts submitted by the end of the year.
East Savannah Gateway Transformation Plan timeline
2012: The Housing Authority of Savannah (HAS) receives a Choice Neighborhood Grant and begins a planning process, engaging with stakeholders and partners to transform the East Savannah Gateway.
2014: The planning process results in a complete transformation plan that is approved by the city of Savannah and by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
2016: HAS selects Hunt Development Group as development consultant and uses grant to finance the construction of The View at Oglethorpe I with 72 new units, among which 80% are affordable. HAS receives approval to rehabilitate former Wessels and Blackshear public housing units and convert them through the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program.
2017: Rehabilitation in the former Wessels and Blackshear sites is completed and the community begins to be called River Pointe I and II, respectively.
2018: Additional 100 units are built at The View at Oglethorpe site. Unassisted, non-rehabbed public housing units at the River Pointe site are demolished along with the older Administrative HAS Office at 200 East Broad St.
2019: Vacant parcels become part of the East Savannah Gateway Revitalization Plan as targeted redevelopment sites.
2023: HAS terminates development agreement with Hunt Development Group after determining future phases of The View at Oglethorpe and River Point are infeasible.
Source: Housing Authority of Savannah
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