After two years of construction, a mixed-income housing complex is opening this week within sight of downtown Atlanta, a MARTA station, and a new affordable healthcare facility. McAuley Station Phase I brings 170 apartments to Gartrell Street in Sweet Auburn, adjacent to the expanded Mercy Care campus and just north of Decatur Street and MARTA's King Memorial station.
The $50 million development is one piece of the McAuley Park masterplan, a mixed-use community spread across several blocks near where Sweet Auburn meets Old Fourth Ward. Mayor Andre Dickens and other city, state, and private-sector officials were scheduled to lead a ribbon-cutting Wednesday morning.
The project is a partnership between Mercy Care and Philadelphia-based developer Pennrose, and every unit in it is income-restricted. Rentals range from studios to two-bedrooms and qualify as affordable, workforce, or supportive housing, all reserved for tenants earning at most 30 to 80 percent of area median income. Listed rents run $1,106 to $1,450 for one-bedrooms and $1,332 to $1,716 for two-bedrooms of up to 920 square feet. Studios start at 404 square feet.
The deepest-need units are the ones that make this project unusual. Thirty studio apartments are set aside as permanent supportive housing, operated through Fulton County's Behavioral Health Department in partnership with Partners for HOME. Another 10 of the 170 units function as transitional or respite housing for Mercy Care patients — meaning someone discharged from care next door has somewhere to recover rather than returning to the street.
The building does not read as social housing from the inside. Residents get a lounge and business center, a fitness center, and a rooftop deck with sweeping views from downtown to Midtown, plus bocce and a grilling station.
Its placement is the point. King Memorial station is a short walk, Mercy Care is next door, and downtown is close enough to reach on foot — the combination of transit, healthcare, and deeply affordable units in one place that Atlanta's housing plans describe often and deliver rarely.
Original reporting by Josh Green for Urbanize Atlanta, published October 2024.