COLLEGE PARK, GA. — Tapestry Development Group, along with construction partner Swinerton, has broken ground on Diamond College Park, about 10 miles south of Atlanta. The 60-unit, 79,000-square-foot property will include 26 one-bedroom and 34 two-bedroom units. Ten apartments will rent at market rates, 22 of the units will be capped at 50 percent of area median income (AMI), and the remaining 28 units will rent to tenants earning 60 percent or less of AMI.
Good Places, which is an Atlanta-based development firm that focuses on adaptive-reuse affordable housing, is a development partner on the project. Diamond College Park is being developed on land formerly owned by College Park First United Methodist Church (CPFUMC).
The project cost was not disclosed, but funding sources include 9 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credits arranged through RBC Capital and a loan from Chase Bank. The architect on the project is Foley Design Associates. The 4-story building will include 1,200 square feet of retail, an outdoor community garden and local art pieces throughout the property via an artist-incubation program between the church and local arts organization PushPush Arts. Construction will be complete within approximately one year, according to Swinerton.
Diamond College Park is one component of Ion College Park, a public-private partnership among the city of College Park, Good Places and CPFUMC for a $28 million mixed-use project to be built on approximately one acre of the church’s land. Good Places is leading the rest of the Ion development. PushPush Arts will assist in programming some of the spaces around the site, including a gallery/café and the development’s “Art Walk,” a pedestrian alleyway fronted by artists’ studios and rehearsal spaces.
Originally built in 1894, CPFUMC was the first church in College Park, according to the church’s Facebook page. In 2019, two of CPFUMC’s four buildings were sold to Good Places.