From Campus to Classroom: Stories That Shape Education
- Develop Fulton approved up to $144.5 million in bonds to fund a 290-unit, 450,000-square-foot student housing project near Morehouse and Spelman.
- Project includes amenities like a central greenspace, rooftop terrace, fitness center, study areas, and is expected to create construction and permanent jobs.
- Fits into a broader surge of nearby developments: mixed-income housing, a 700-bed Spelman residence hall, and Vine City redevelopment near Clark Atlanta.
In the blocks around Atlanta’s consortium of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, hundreds of new housing options have recently opened or are in the pipeline—and the trend shows few signs of slowing down.
Develop Fulton, the county’s economic development authority, unanimously approved this week an investment of up to $144.5 million to fund development of a student-housing project at the doorstep of Morehouse and Spelman colleges.
The Radnor Property Group proposal calls for turning vacant property at 850 West End Ave. SW into a 290-unit project with some 800 additional beds for Morehouse and Spelman students. The goal is to meet a need for “modern, high-quality” student housing, per a Develop Fulton announcement, in Southwest Atlanta near the Atlanta University Center cluster of five HBCUs.
The site in question is immediately south of Morehouse’s B.T. Harvey Stadium, which hosts football and track and field events. Spelman’s new “front porch,” the Mary Schmidt Campbell Center for Innovation and the Arts, is just to the east.
Planned facades for the 290-unit proposal at 850 West End Ave. SW. Radnor Property Group, via Develop Fulton
Development reps tell Urbanize Atlanta the project is scheduled to start construction this summer and deliver for the fall semester of 2028.
Funding will be sourced from a federally taxable and tax-exempt public offering of 501(c)(3) revenue bonds. Develop Fulton officials expect the $144.5 bond issuance to close in the third quarter of this year.
The 450,000-square-foot student housing venture will feature a central greenspace and rooftop terrace. Other amenities call for a fitness center, dedicated study areas, and a community lounge, among other social spaces.
According to Develop Fulton’s tabulation, the project is expected to generate 350 construction jobs and 14 permanent ones.
The acreage in question, at right, as seen along West End Avenue in early 2025. Google Maps
Develop Fulton Board Chair Kwanza Hall said his agency’s support will help “strengthen Atlanta’s higher education ecosystem while advancing economic opportunity, without placing additional burden on taxpayers,” per a statement. Nick Allen of Radnor Property Group added that the “transformative student housing partnership” will “enhance Morehouse and Spelman’s campus environments for generations to come.”
The news follows the opening of another large residential venture in nearby blocks: the second phase of mixed-income Ashley Scholars Landing.
Elsewhere, a new 700-bed Spelman College residence hall is bound for the heart of campus, near popular greenspace The Oval.
North of there, Invest Atlanta recently selected a team to redevelop roughly 8 acres in Vine City along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, just north of Clark Atlanta University’s CAU Panther Stadium. Redevelopment plans call for new housing, a hotel, and a conference center and classroom building for Morris Brown College.
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