ATLANTA — A plan started in 2021 by then-Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to build affordable housing for local teachers and seniors is moving forward.

Last Tuesday, the Development Authority of Fulton County voted to approve up to $370 million in tax-exempt bonds to fund construction of a “Teachers’ Village” near Centennial Olympic Park.

The project will be built by the RBH Group, a developer that has already built a Teachers’ Villages in Newark, N.J.

According to officials, the property will be built at 98 Cone St. NW in Atlanta, with construction to begin in 2025 and the building to open to tenants in 2027.

The RBH Group said the Teachers Village Atlanta building will be part of an active mixed-use downtown neighborhood at the heart of the Fairlie-Poplar part of downtown.

The property will be more than 450,000 square feet, with almost 23,000 for retail space, and 197 workforce apartments. Another 227 apartments will be marked for seniors, with an independent living discount to the market rate for those residents, according to RBH.

The community will also feature 371 parking garage spaces, in addition to its close proximity to the Five Points MARTA station, the developer said.

In 2021, the Lance Bottoms administration greenlit a $4 million Tax Allocation District grant and provided a $26.36 million financing bond, also tax-exempt, for the project.