Invest Atlanta’s Board approved a $200,000 grant from the Brownfield Revolving Loan Fund to support the Atlanta Land Trust in its efforts to remediate a property in the East Lake community for future development.

Located at 697 and 721 Fayetteville Road, the property is currently designated a brownfield, which cannot be reused or redeveloped due to the presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.

With help from the approved grant, the Atlanta Land Trust will remediate the two-acre property, making it safe to construct 40 affordable for-sale town homes. All 40 units will be held by Atlanta Land Trust to ensure permanent affordability, with half reserved for families making at or below 120% area medium income (AMI) and the other half held for those at 80% AMI.

This property clean-up will allow the conversion of a contaminated site into a future public asset for the community and is part of a larger East Lake Foundation initiative to help individuals build a better life for themselves and future generations through equitable cradle-to-college education, mixed-income housing, and community wellness.

“Finding the first money to do some of the hard things like this – you don’t get a bank loan to do remediation – you’re going to have to just do it. So, [getting] $200,000 or $500,000 to clean up a brownfield allows you to go out and get the rest of your loan proceeds,” says Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. “With the revolving loan fund, we can go out and advertise [and say,] ‘Those ugly pieces of property that once was an old drycleaner or gas station or something else that needs to be remediated, tell us about it,’ and we can supply you with this loan fund.”