Warner Robins apartment plan brings hope

A proposed apartment complex in a struggling area of Warner Robins can’t come soon enough for Thomas Williamson.

He is manager of Giant Foods on North Davis Drive. The location, formerly Big Apple, has been a grocery store since the early 1960s, but it has taken three body blows in the past five years.

In 2011, the Warner Robins Housing Authority began moving residents out of Oscar Thomie Homes, an old 70-unit complex directly behind Giant Foods. It was demolished in February 2015.

Meanwhile, over the past two years, the state has been buying up homes in an area -- right up the street from Giant Foods -- the Department of Defense says is at risk for plane crashes and excessive noise from Robins Air Force Base. The homes have been demolished, and no one can live there again.

Including an area north of the base in Bibb County, the state has bought about 300 homes.

Then last year Wal-Mart opened a Neighborhood Market grocery store about two miles away. Williamson said that actually hasn’t hurt much, but after already struggling, “not much” can be a lot.

“As of today, we are dying a slow death,” Williamson said.

But there is a faint light at the end of a long tunnel. Last week the Warner Robins Public Housing Authority and an Atlanta developer told the City Council about their partnership to rebuild on the Oscar Thomie site.

The plans call for a mixed income apartment complex, with some units subsidized. The complex would start with 66 units and could eventually be as many as 200.

It all hinges on an application to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs to get tax credits for building low-income housing. If it’s approved, construction should start early next year and the apartments would be filled by June 2018, said James Brooks, the developer.

Airmen could benefit from complex

Brooks is the owner of Boulevard Group in Atlanta, which he said builds affordable housing complexes around the country. He said his projects do not look like low-income housing, and he emphasized the units are not public housing.

“We think it’s going to be an extraordinary affordable housing development for Warner Robins,” Brooks said. “We really want to do something that’s got some style and a real neighborhood feel to it.”

The housing authority would retain ownership of the property, and the developer would finance the construction, said Sheryl Frazier, the authority’s executive director.

Oscar Thomie Homes was torn down because the buildings were beyond repair. She said the authority does not have the money to rebuild public housing there, so partnering with a developer is the best option to put affordable housing back in the area.

She said young airmen at Robins Air Force Base likely would be eligible for the reduced rental rates.

“This is a great opportunity for us to support the base with the junior enlisted folks we have over there,” she said.

Large trees to stay

Brooks said he should know by December whether the tax credits are approved. Other projects across the state also will be applying for the same tax credit with a limited number that can be accepted, but Brooks said he likes his chances.

“We believe with our scoring we will be very competitive,” he said.

The property is on the south side of Ignico Drive. On the other side of Ignico is the area where the state has been buying houses. But despite the close proximity, the Oscar Thomie tract is not in the zone designated at risk for plane crashes, so housing can be built there.

The tract now looks like a park, with nothing there but trees and some maintenance buildings. Some of the trees are large, live oaks, and Brooks said the plan calls not only for those to remain, but also for them to be featured in the landscape design.

The tract is in the district of Councilman Clifford Holmes, who was on the housing authority board when the process to get the apartments began four years ago. He said it would be a big boost for the area, which has seen little new housing or new businesses in recent years.

“When I moved to that area in 1970, it was thriving,” he said. “This project is going to make a difference in that area. It’s going to boost morale and bring in new business.”

For Giant Foods, it will be a long wait. But Williams said even if only 66 units are built, that would be a game-changer for the store.

“If we can survive until then, we will definitely be able to make it for sure,” he said. “Between now and then, we are going to have to tighten the screws and cut off every light that doesn’t have to be turned on.”

This story was originally published April 22, 2016 at 1:33 PM with the headline "Warner Robins apartment plan brings hope."