South Rome revels in revival

McCall Place at 310 S. Broad St. will be the first of the new apartments to open.

A South Rome residential revival appears to be growing as the management firm hired to assist with the leasing of new apartments and duplex homes there has received more than 260 inquiries in the first month.

A total of 84 apartments are available in two new apartment complexes and a duplex neighborhood under construction as part of a tax-credit partnership between Laurel Street Residential and South Rome Redevelopment Corporation.

Rome Community Development Director Bekki Fox said Gateway Management has already approved 16 applicants and tentatively assigned them to apartments in either McCall Place or Etowah Bend apartments.

Lee Cochran, senior vice president with Laurel Street Residential, said the larger of the two buildings at McCall Place, 310 S. Broad St., should get a certificate of occupancy early in July.

The second building that fronts on Cherokee Street should be open by the end of July.

Cochran said the Etowah Bend building closest to the Etowah River should open in September and the building right on South Broad should be ready in October. The Burrell Square duplexes on Hardy Avenue are slated for occupancy

by the end of the year.

“We’ve had great response and we really expect that as each building comes on line our goal is to have folks ready to move into those units,” Cochran said.

“There were a lot of naysayers. People said you’re never going to rent the apartments over there. Nobody wants to

live in South Rome, and here we’ve had 264 inquiries,” Fox said. “It’s fun to say we’ve been successful.”

Rent for the apartments is based on household income. Rates for a one-bedroom unit range from $354 to $466. Two-bedroom apartments range from $450 to $560 and three bedrooms rent from $505 to $635.

“They have had to deny

some applications,” Fox said. She explained some of the initial interest in the apartments has come from college students, but full-time college students are not allowed in tax-credit housing developments.

People can reach the Gateway Management leasing office on Woodrow Wilson Way in West Rome at 706-410-2764.

Doug Walker / Rome News-Tribune Workers finish the railing along a sidewalk between the new apartment buildings at McCall Place in South Rome. The two buildings are expected to get certificates of occupancy in July.