City wants to build rental housing at revamped Midtown fire station

Station 15 would have firefighting and apartments.

Atlanta officials have launched a string of affordable housing projects that utilize unexpected resources.

Hundreds of units are planned for the 41-story 2 Peachtree high-rise downtown, while shipping containers once used for hospital overflow during COVID19 will be given new life as a low-income community.

Now, city leaders want to revamp Fire Station 15 in the Midtown neighborhood into a mixed-use site that features new fire facilities and hundreds of both market-rate and affordable housing units on top.

Last year, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens announced the formation of the Atlanta Urban Development Corp. subsidiary under the Atlanta Housing Authority.

The new nonprofit was created to build mixed-income housing without the reliance on tax credits that are often used to develop affordable housing citywide.

The Atlanta Urban Devel- opment Corp. focuses on creating social housing, a European model where rentals are owned in part by the government to provide affordable housing.

The city has recently been increasing the use of pub- licly owned land for afford- able housing projects, like the plans it has created for Thomasville Heights which is home to the embattled For- est Cove apartment complex.

The transformed fire res- cue station at 170 10th St. into a mixed-income res- idential tower could offer 100 affordable rental units in Midtown — where affordable housing options are rare. The city has said it wants to build 30 to 40 stories of housing above the station on the nearly 0.8-acre site.

The city announced Wednesday the Atlanta Urban Development Corp. launched the search to find a developer for the project.

HYOSUB SHIN/AJC 2023 High-rise housing is gaining traction in Atlanta. Hundreds of units are planned for the 41-story 2 Peachtree highrise downtown, and now a Midtown fire station could be adapted to include housing units on top.