Invest Atlanta announced the release of a Request for Proposals seeking to develop 24 single-family properties in Atlanta’s English Avenue and Vine City neighborhoods to turn currently abandoned land parcels into affordable workforce housing units.

This redevelopment of 24 Invest Atlanta-owned properties will add new housing for Westside residents and help to reduce blight, enhance security and catalyze future private investment in these communities. The acquisition of these vacant and blighted properties for development was completed as part of the Westside TAD Neighborhood Strategic Implementation Plan with the approval of the Invest Atlanta board of directors.

“We implemented a Westside land assembly strategy in 2014 to activate vacant and blighted land, putting these properties to use for the community as affordable workforce housing,” said Dr. Eloisa Klementich, president and CEO, Invest Atlanta. “This initiative is one part of our larger strategy to encourage equitable development that benefits residents in English Avenue, Vine City and other Westside neighborhoods.”

Developers can submit bids using a variety of unique and innovative housing types, whether through new construction or the renovation of existing homes. All responses must align with the vision articulated in the Land Use Action Plan, which recommends the preservation of homes with historical importance and the implementation of new housing design that is consistent with the existing historic homes.

“This effort will bring a variety of new affordable housing options to English Avenue and Vine City while also preserving the heritage of these historic neighborhoods,” said Dawn Luke, senior vice president of Community Development, Invest Atlanta.

All units also must be developed for homeownership and be made available at prices affordable to households earning a maximum of 120 percent of the area median income for Atlanta’s metropolitan statistical area. A new unit also needs to be certified through the EarthCraft House residential green building program, demonstrating it is designed in an energy and resource efficient way.