There's a stretch of land off Atlanta's northwest side that a lot of folks still call Bowen Homes, even though the old public housing complex came down back in 2009. On Thursday, Oct. 8, the shovels went in for the next piece of what's being built there, and the whole place got a new name to go with it.
The development will now be called Ariel Place at Bowen. As WABE reported from the groundbreaking, Atlanta Housing named it for Ariel Serena Hedges Bowen, a Black musician, writer and educator who died in 1904. The old complex carried the name of her husband and stepson, both named John Wesley Edward Bowen. Atlanta Housing says she taught history and English under Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee before coming to Atlanta, where she became a music professor at Clark College, now Clark Atlanta University.
"Names matter," Mayor Andre Dickens said at the ceremony. "We need to see some women names on some stuff, and here we go. We got one."
What's going up in phase two
For those of us who care about what's actually getting framed and roofed, here's the meat of it. This second phase brings 112 homes. WABE broke the mix down this way: 34 subsidized units, 35 affordable units, 10 workforce units and 33 market-rate units. Rough Draft Atlanta listed amenities that include a community room with a kitchenette, co-working space, a theater room, a fitness and wellness center, a business center, an outdoor gathering spot with grills and a playground.
The development team is a partnership between Atlanta Housing, The Benoit Group and McCormack Baron Salazar, with Cooper Carry as the project architect. Rough Draft Atlanta also named Walton Construction among the partners on the redevelopment. Groundbreak, a site that tracks Atlanta construction, lists phase two's expected completion as late 2027.
The money behind the whole redevelopment is substantial. Atlanta Housing told WABE that a $40 million HUD Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant supports the entire development, along with $10 million in City of Atlanta funding and more than $520 million in public and private investment.
Eddy Benoit Jr., president and CEO of The Benoit Group, put a number on where things stand today. "With this Phase II groundbreaking, we've reached $100 million in investment on this transformative masterplan development," he said in the Atlanta Housing announcement.
A long runway
This isn't a one-and-done job. Atlanta Housing says the full redevelopment will create about 2,000 rental and for-sale homes, and that 40% of them will be affordable when it's all done. Rough Draft Atlanta put the site at 74 acres. The first phase's residential buildings were expected to wrap up by the end of 2026, according to WABE.
Atlanta Housing is projecting the first six phases will be finished by 2031. Benoit told WABE that later phases could stretch years past that. Dickens also said Atlanta Public Schools plans to build a new elementary school on the historic A.D. Williams site as part of the effort to bring the neighborhood back.
The old Bowen Homes went up in the 1960s and had about 650 apartments, plus a library and a school, before it was torn down. People who grew up there still feel it. Dennis Butler, who said his parents grew up in Bowen Homes, rode up on his bicycle after the ceremony and told WABE he'd been there the day it was razed. These days he's looking ahead. "The old memories are dead. We on to the new now," he said.
Atlanta Housing is also starting a Bowen oral history project, asking former residents and families to share photos, documents and stories from life at the old complex.
Why it matters for Contractors
A 2,000-home master plan with phases planned out to 2031 and beyond is the kind of steady pipeline that keeps crews busy for years, not months. Each phase means site work, concrete, framing, MEP, roofing, finishes and landscaping, and a mixed-income building with amenity spaces like these calls for a wide range of trades. If you're a sub in metro Atlanta, now is a good time to get to know the development team and the builders working the site, because the folks who perform well on phase two are often first in line for phase three. With a HUD grant and city money in the stack, expect paperwork and compliance requirements to come with the work, so have your documentation house in order before you bid.