AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – More affordable housing is coming to Downtown Augusta – city leaders made it official on Monday.

On Laney Walker Boulevard, an affordable rental building called the Lenox will be built, and city leaders said this is meaningful for multiple reasons.

“An affordable housing option in the middle of a historic neighborhood – one that is seeing tremendous re-development – I think speaks to the greatness that is this project,” said District 1 Commissioner Jordan Johnson.

The Georgia Department of Community Affairs selected the 64-unit building for a 4% Housing Tax Credit and Private Activity Bonds Award.

Augusta residents who earn up to 80% of area median income will have access to the builing.

It will have amenities such as a rooftop terrace and a fitness center, as well as about 4,000 square feet of commercial space on the first floor.

“The most that I hear from my constituents that have to move far, far away from work, or from where they really wanna live, is because there’s no affordable housing,” said District 9 Commissioner Francine Scott. “So, today is a great day because they put [in] the effort to bring affordable housing to the Laney Walker community.”

Leaders tell us they have plans to bring more developments to the area in the future.

“This is a main street development. This is an area in which you have a lot of cars traveling everyday,” said Hawthorne Welcher Jr., the Director of the Housing and Community Development Department. “There’s no grocery stores, there’s no coffee shops, so at the end of the day, with the Housing and Development Department, I just want to serve the community.”

The building is named after the old Lenox Theater, and will be built where the former Immaculate Conception Catholic School was.

“The Immaculate Conception school was a staple in the Black community, and so many of your leaders and our family members went to the Immaculate Conception School,” Jordan Johnson said. “So, to be able to put a structure on this property and then name it after the Lenox theater, just speaks to so much greatness. The parallels are encouraging.”

City leaders said they expect to hold a groundbreaking ceremony by the beginning of 2024.