A $940,000 Westside Tax Allocation District (TAD) forgivable loan will fund a new, mixed-used hospitality community in the Castleberry Hill neighborhood in close proximity to Mercedes Benz Stadium. The loan, which was approved by the Invest Atlanta Board, will pave the way for the conversion of a vacant brownfield into a four-story, 4,000-square-foot facility featuring a culinary kitchen incubator and boutique hotel.

The chef-forward kitchen and restaurant incubator will offer space for local creatives and chefs and will function as a residency program to showcase their products and develop their culinary and hospitality skills. The space will include indoor/outdoor dining, a small market area to sell food products and a communal living room where people can bond through food.

A 30-room hotel will be located on top of the incubator. Hotel revenue will offset the overall costs to support the food programming, provide additional foot traffic to the food spaces and offer a platform to expose local Atlanta businesses to the city’s global visitors.

The hospitality community will also feature a rooftop greenhouse and garden connecting food entrepreneurs with local farms, vendors and suppliers and serve as a source of herbs and produce for the chefs. Rent in the commercial incubator space will be 20% below-market rate, and during vacancy periods, hotel rooms can be used for an onsite, chef-in-residence.