“The worse the problem, the more likely that I’m sitting in the chair.”
This is the approach of Wingate Companies Senior Vice President John Tatum. And now, he’s in the chair at Atlanta’s Trestletree Village Section 8 Community, steps from the Beltline trail.
Wingate, a national real estate and development firm focused on affordable housing, closed on the property earlier this summer with plans for a major overhaul of the 188-unit affordable development in Grant Park and Ormewood Park. But it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing.
Some neighbors have rejected the redevelopment plans entirely, which would create denser housing in the area. Others railed against the low-income housing designations in published opinion pieces.
But now, Wingate seems to have some level of local support — enough for Invest Atlanta to greenlight a $26 million tax-exempt bond and a $2 million Beltline Tax Allocation District grant at a Sept. 17 meeting. The money will fund Phase 1 of the development: the creation of 208 units at varied price points, with a few at market rate.
Tatum said it took work to get there. According to the company executive, Wingate started off on rocky footing with the Trestletree residents. They weren’t allowed to communicate with the tenants until the sale was finalized, and the purchase moved so quickly the team had not ironed out some of the touchier project details.
“We’re willing to take on these kinds of hairy projects,” Tatum said.
So Wingate went to work. The team has a seven-month-long public process with roughly 30 meetings to create a five-page Letter of Understanding, or LOU, with the residents. The document is a guidebook for developers.
The many meetings also seemingly cooled any tensions between the tenants and the company. On a Sept. 16 tour of the property, Tatum was friendly with passing residents. He even rented a place in the area to feel more local to the community.
But he still seems prepared for the criticism. Without asking, Tatum explains the missteps Wingate made, and the philosophy behind the project.
“The existing buildings have now reached the end of their useful life cycle,” he explained. The apartments were built as army barracks in the 1940s and 1950s, and were renovated in 2014. Rather than revamp the buildings again, Wingate plans to create new construction.
The project will also increase density, which some neighbors oppose. Phase one will add 20 units to the existing 188-unit footprint, and the company projects a total of 800 units by the project finish.
But the finish line is far out of reach. For now, the company aims to temporarily relocate residents out of their units by the end of 2027, then kick off demolition. Tatum aims to finish the first building by 2029 and let existing residents move back in.
Still, Wingate needs to clear some major hurdles. The Invest Atlanta dollars cleared one block, but Wingate must also receive housing tax credits from the federal government – the developers sent in the application on Sept. 25.
If the company gets the credit, it can move forward with demolition. But construction is expensive, and the team still has to figure out some tricky areas: clear-cutting trees, removing a berm between the complex and the Beltline, creating access points and adding amenities.
Tatum aims to tackle it using the Letter of Understanding’s long list of agreements. It includes rules like minimum parking spaces, safety measures, preserved affordability and “reasonable and good faith efforts” to engage the residents during the redevelopment.
“We’re going to come up with a priority list, and we’re going to take the biggest issues and the most pressing issues first, and then we’re going to sort of work our way through that list,” he said.
Ultimately, he believes the project will unlock development value in a so-called “high opportunity neighborhood.” But that goal is far off in the future.
“We’re not even in the first inning,” Tatum added. “I don’t know if I’m in the ballpark yet with these discussions.”
