The property has been cleared for a few weeks now and as of Thursday morning the ground has been formally "broken" by city officials for the Walton Summit complex on Gainesville's Atlanta Street.
Gainesville Housing Authority Board Chairman Broughton Cochran presided at the groundbreaking ceremony, reflecting on the history of the site on Atlanta Street at EE Butler Parkway.
"The Green Hunter Homes project, previously on this site, was first occupied in 1951," Cochran told the audience. "Many families lived here on Atlanta Street as they got themselves ready for the next step in their lives.
Cochran noted that Green Hunter Homes was considered state-of-the-art for low income housing at one time.
"But as the years went by, we renovated, we remodeled, we put band-aids on old buildings to the point where it became economically unfeasible to continue," Cochran said.
As the housing complex grew more dilapidated, the Gainesville Housing Authority realized the time had come to completely replace the so-called "projects." Some four years ago, GHA issued an RFP calling for bids on a replacement project for Green Hunter Homes. From 10 developers who made application, the housing authority selected Walton Communities. Over the following years, Walton developed a game plan to replace Green Hunter Homes with a new development that will include a combination of low income housing and apartment living for those in higher income levels.
Cochran said the new formula should serve Gainesville well; he thinks the city is ready for the mixed-income project.
"With all the things that are happening in midtown, we hope to be a stimulus to bring the millennials to midtown," Cochran said. "There will be public housing units [within the project] that will get the full subsidy as if they were in any of our other projects, but there will also be [units] for varying incomes."
The groundbreaking ceremony Thursday was for Phase I of Walton Summit - there will be three phases to the project.
Cochran said if all goes as planned, the first residents will move into the new complex just after the first of 2018.
