Affordable Housing For Artists Will Be Available In Adair Park Development

The Creatives Project founder Neda Abghari and Stryant Investments co-founder Atticus LeBlanc with Lois Reitzes.

Gabbie Watts / WABE

Since 2011, the arts nonprofit The Creatives Project (TCP) has provided housing and studio spaces to artists, who in turn teach art in local schools.

But the organization has had to re-think their model as affordable housing becomes more scarce in the city.

“There is just a lack of inventory of single family homes. So we’ve shifted our model to work with developers,” explained TCP’s founder Neda Abghari in an interview with Lois Reitzes.

She found a partner in Atticus LeBlanc, the co-founder of Stryant Investments, a development firm that focused on affordable housing since 2008. The result of this partnership will be an art, community and living space in Adair Park that will include 35 small units of affordable housing, artists studios, creative office space and a coffee shop

“From a very early stage, we wanted to make sure it was something that is accessible to the general public in addition to being residences,” said LeBlanc. “This is an old school building that was the center of the Adair Park neighborhood for many years…we looked at the arts to create interactions and collisions within the community. Art has a way of doing that that would not otherwise be as possible.”

The project is expected to be completed in 2019.

In the meantime, TCP opens its 7th annual Art of Community Exhibition this Sunday, featuring the work of their resident artists. That’s at 805 Peachtree Street and on view for the general public through Dec. 10. More information is here.