Developer seeks $25 million tax incentive for Chamblee downtown project; board defers

Rod, the project applicant, outlined the proposed Frasier at Old Town Gordon development and its requested incentive at the Downtown Development Authority meeting on Sept. 23. The proposal includes 63 affordable units at 80% of area median income and an affordable-housing incentive quantified at $225,000 per unit, which the chair said yields $14,175,000 of the developer’s $25,000,000 request. Rod told the board that, without development, the site would generate roughly $47,000 in taxes next year (the city’s share about 25% or roughly $11,000), and that construction could lift property value to about $52,000,000 with first-year post-construction city receipts cited in the hundreds of thousands. "If we do go with the tax abatement, our numbers see a dramatic rise after 1 year of construction," Rod said.

Board members pressed for more detail on the developer’s underwriting, construction costs and alternatives to a single, large up-front abatement. Members noted prior local incentives for comparison and asked whether the DDA could structure a multi-bucket approach that ties payments to measurable milestones or indexes some amounts to market rates such as the 10‑year Treasury. The chair explained the DDA’s typical practice for an 80% abatement: a 10% administrative payment to the DDA and a 10% payment in lieu of taxes to taxing entities (about 25% of which returns to the city). After extended discussion the board took no formal action and asked the applicant to provide further pro forma details and to consider value engineering and hybrid structuring; members signaled they could revisit the item in October or call a special meeting.