Westside Project Brings Promise Of Investment — And Some Worry
Developers are planning a large mixed-use project for a neglected block adjacent to railroad tracks in the English Avenue neighborhood.
Stephannie Stokes / WABE
A new development hopes to bridge a longtime gap in investment on Atlanta’s westside. To explain, Wesley Defoor stands on a quiet street that dead ends into railroad tracks.
“You know this side of the railroad tracks has really been kind of left without a whole lot of opportunity,” he said.
This side is English Avenue, a neighborhood that’s had a hard time attracting any sort of amenities. Defoor, who’s behind Defoor Ventures, and his development partners intend to change that.
They’re planning a large mixed-use project on this street near the intersection of Northside Drive and Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway called Westside Yards. Defoor explained it will have apartments, offices, stores, an event space and possibly a brewery.
“Really where we see this value is just in having the opportunity to create something for the community that can provide goods and services and food and jobs and opportunity to this side of the tracks,” he said.
The tracks have acted like a dividing line for investment. Just across is Georgia Tech and Marietta Street, an area that has long had shops and a cluster of trendy restaurants.
But if that development finally jumps the tracks over here, some are asking who will it be for?
“If the rents are so high that it pushes the price point of the product up, then it serves very little purpose to most English Avenue residents,” said Winston Taylor.
Taylor is another developer who is active in English Avenue. He owns a partially intact historic church on James P. Brawley Drive that is often used as a community space.
Taylor said he wants to see more in the Westside Yards project for the community’s low-income residents. He said the investors are already seeking to build way more density than the neighborhood has planned for.
“And so I think that you can provide some opportunities for under-served,” he said.
Defoor, the developer behind Westside Yards, said it will include housing for some lower income ranges—15 percent for those making 80 percent of the area median income or 10 percent for those making 60 percent of the area median income.
Previously, advocates in the westside neighborhoods have called for housing that’s accessible to much lower incomes.
The Westside Yards project has earned the support of the English Avenue Neighborhood Association. It goes before the Atlanta Zoning Review Board Thursday night.
Top Stories
