By Eric Curl
Sept. 15, 2024 – The city’s years-long effort to develop affordable housing at the former fairgrounds site is continuing to gain momentum, while state support for another affordable housing development in downtown Savannah remains elusive.
This month, the Georgia Department of Community Affairs announced that the plan to construct up to 64 apartments for seniors on the site will be awarded low-income housing tax credits, considered essential by developers to make the financing work for such projects.
The application was the second attempt by developer Bill Gross after a 2023 application did not score high enough to be awarded the highly competitive grants.
The tax credit success comes about five months after the city was awarded a $2.5 million state grant for infrastructure improvements necessary to develop the 66-acre site.
Gross said on Friday that the workforce housing grant played a large part in the awarding of the tax credits
“That initiative of the city is really what is needed,” Gross said. “It certainly helps in the application for the senior housing to know that you have a city working diligently to make a difference.”
In April, the city also authorized a $1.9 million loan from the Savannah Affordable Housing Fund in support of the application.
The senior housing will be built on about 3.8 acres of the 66-acre fairgrounds site. The overall project is expected to include an estimated 400 housing units, film and sound studio facilities, a creative workforce innovation center, neighborhood commercial uses, parks, sports fields and courts, a nature preserve and more.
The master developer the city selected for the overall project, P3JVG, will develop 30 new single-family homes to qualified home buyers and 20 townhomes in the first phase. Construction of that phase should begin by the end of the year, while it will likely take about a year to break ground on the senior housing component, Gross said.
Struggles continue for Drayton Street development
Meanwhile, another city supported plan to construct 41 affordable apartments on former city property located downtown failed to obtain the tax credits for the fourth year in a row.
The latest denial comes even after the city authorized a $1.2 million loan for the project property at Drayton and 34th streets. The developer, Pinyan/Procida Development Group, purchased the site from the city in 2021 to develop the complex.
Mario Procida, with the development group, was unavailable for comment on Friday. Last year, Procida said that construction of the affordable apartment complex is dependent on the awarding of the tax credits.
“Otherwise, we can’t make the math work,” he said at the time.
City officials are disappointed the project was not awarded tax credits in this round of applications, according to city spokesperson Joshua Peacock.
“The scores on this proposed project have increased each year over the past four applications,” Peacock said. “We are encouraging the developer to explore other possible funding opportunities and options in the event a fifth Low-Income Housing Tax Credit application award falls short of the DCA’s application criteria.”
Editor’s note: This article was updated on Sept. 19 to include the comments from city spokesperson Joshua Peacock.
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