A school campus in Pleasant Hill that has been vacant for the better part of a decade could soon be redeveloped into affordable housing and commercial rental spaces.
Macon-Bibb County and the Macon Housing Authority plan to build a 64-unit apartment complex at Walnut and Madison streets where the Macon Charter Academy operated before the Georgia Department of Education ordered it to close in 2016.
Macon-Bibb County purchased the 5-acre property at 151 Madison St. in late February from New York-based hedge fund Rosemawr Management for $1.5 million. The county is working with the Macon Housing Authority and In-Fill Housing II Inc., a subsidiary of the authority, on plans to demolish the existing buildings and construct the new development.
At its regular monthly meeting Thursday, the housing authority board approved reserving 13 of the 64 apartments for tenants with Section 8 vouchers pending the outcome of its application for a Low Income Housing Tax Credit from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.
“It’s all conditional; It’s got to pass HUD, it’s got to pass DCA and so on and so forth,” housing authority CEO Mike Austin told board members. “If all of those check marks are made – and it’s an if-then situation – then 13 can be allocated to this property, which gives a good mix of tax credit and affordable” housing.
In addition to the 13 apartments for Section 8 project-based vouchers, 10% of the apartments will be reserved for disabled tenants and 10% to the general population at or below the 50% Area Median Income. All told, 57 of the 64 apartments would be affordable.
In-Fill Housing II Inc. Director Kathleen Mathews said she has been working hard on the application for a Low Income Housing Tax Credit, a competitive award that would subsidize the cost of construction. The application is due to the state by May 17.
Mayor Lester Miller said the tax credit is the first option for paying for the development but “either way it will happen.”
The property, dubbed Pleasant Hill Landings, is within a census tract that is among the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2024 list of “difficult development areas.”
The Macon-Bibb Planning & Zoning Commission is expected to consider approval for the development at its April 22 meeting.
Though the buildings on the property have deteriorated over time, the price of the land lot has increased dramatically over the past 15 years.
Property records show the land changed hands five times since 2009 when a Palm Beach, Florida, company bought it in foreclosure from Progressive Christian Academy for $200,000. The company, Sunrise Enterprises Inc., sold it to Hope Academy of Macon for $400,000 in 2012.
Two years later, Macon Charter Academy purchased the property for $350,000. The charter school owned it for a little more than a year before selling it to Highmark School Development, a for-profit charter school developer based in Utah, for about $358,000. In 2019, Highmark sold the property to Rosemawr Management for $1,634,000.
To contact Civic Journalism Fellow Laura Corley, call 478-301-5777 or email [email protected].
