--News Direct--
Atlanta developer Walter H. "Chief" Aiken opened the Waluhaje Hotel Apartments in the West Lake Community (located in northwest Atlanta) in 1951, serving Atlanta’s post-war development. Waluhaje Apartments was a multi-purpose development that included apartment residences, hotel rooms, and entertainment facilities. The complex gained notoriety for its ballroom, which featured many of the top jazz performers of the era.
The Waluhaje hosted performing artists, such as Duke Ellington, Ray Charles, and others were denied lodging in Atlanta’s segregated hotels. The Waluhaje was featured in the famous Green Book travel guides published in the 1930s through the 1960s, listing establishments where Black travelers were welcome.
Upon the passing of the Aiken family, the Waluhaje Apartments, with all the history it contained, was at risk of falling into a state beyond repair.
Thankfully, a bipartisan tax credit program exists to help bring capital to underserved urban and rural communities that rarely attract this type of funding—the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC).
An oasis nestled in a once rich and vibrant community, the redevelopment and preservation of this gem will be the catalyst for economic and community development that this Westside community needs and deserves. Heritage Village @ West Lake allows community rebuilding to start with the most vulnerable, hard to reach and lower-income populations. The Heritage Village @ West Lake site is a full rehabilitation site with 102 units and a total of 61,380 square feet. The restoration project is supported by Truist Community Capital, partnering with Quest Community Development and Columbia Residential.
Quest strives to promote integrated access to resources in its communities regardless of ability status. All services and resources will be offered to all residents. The Quest and Columbia Residential development team seeks to respect and honor the history of the site. Quest will continue to focus on providing stable and affordable housing, with healthcare and job readiness services, to vulnerable populations.
To finance the Heritage Village project, Truist Community Capital invested in $11 million in New Markets Tax Credit allocation and provided a $12.3 million bridge loan.
One of the most efficient community economic development tools for low-income communities ever enacted, NMTCs have leveraged an unprecedented level of investment to both rural and urban low-income communities, generating over $135 billion in total capital investment through public-private partnerships and creating more than one million jobs across the country. In Georgia alone, the NMTC program has helped 171 projects, facilities, and businesses, including adding 16,300 permanent FTE jobs and 15,500 temporary FTE construction jobs, with $4.8 billion in total project financing through 2023.
At the close of 2020, the NMTC was set to expire. Instead, it received a five-year, $25 billion extension in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, the largest extension in the history of the tax credit. This extension provided much-needed investments and advancement opportunities for underserved communities across the country and those right here in Atlanta, Georgia.
The NMTC program, however, is presently on track to expire once again in 2025. Fortunately, at the beginning of February, both the U.S. Senate and House introduced the New Markets Tax Credit Extension Act, H.R.1103 and S.479, with bipartisan support to make the extension permanent. Establishing permanence will provide certainty in delivering resources to low-income and marginalized communities, creating jobs, increasing economic opportunity and improving lives at a time when underserved communities face significant challenges.
We are calling on all Georgia members of Congress to continue to ensure this resource be available—permanently—and integrate the NMTC into America’s plan to help underserved and marginalized communities in Georgia and across the country.
The Heritage Village @ West Lake project stands as a successful model of how adaptive reuse can rejuvenate historic sites, drive economic development, and strengthen community ties for decades to come—let’s ensure the federal program that made it possible lasts just as long.
Leonard L. Adams is Founder and CEO of Quest Community Development Corporation, a Georgia-based non-profit organization.
Contact Details
Greg Wilson
+1 571-239-7474
Company Website
View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/opinion-nmtc-program-brings-jobs-economic-development-and-housing-to-georgia-lets-make-it-permanent-597246298
