City of Refuge breaks ground on Westside center to include market, medical clinic, and housing

The local nonprofit City of Refuge has broken ground on its Transformation Center, a 38,000-square-foot facility to offer economic, health, and wellness services on the Westside.

The project is the most significant initiative of the organization’s “Breaking Barriers, Building Momentum” capital campaign and is expected to open in fall 2025, according to a press release.

Situated on the former American Legion lot at 1343 Joseph E. Boone Blvd, just a two-minute walk from the City of Refuge’s campus, the $15,200,000 Transformation Center will be a three-story structure.

“With more than 25 years operating on Atlanta’s Westside, we have been blessed to serve more than 35,000 people. The Transformation Center will enable us to deepen our outreach into the community,” Bruce Deel, founder and CEO of City of Refuge, said in the press release. “We are immensely grateful for the generosity of our partners as we reach this significant groundbreaking milestone and set in motion a key centerpiece of our capital campaign to help the individuals we champion everyday boldly reach their full potential and spur long-term change in their neighborhood.”

The Transformation Center will include:

• In a neighborhood where only 7.3% of the population is self-employed, the Entrepreneurship Hub will offer resources for those who want to start their oown business. It will include a classroom, offices, and a lab for idea-sharing and presentations, with an objective of training 100 potential entrepreneurs per year to create jobs and increase economic prosperity on Atlanta’s Westside.
• To support the Health & Wellness of the community, the Transformation Center will feature a market or grocery store, in addition to a medical and mental health clinic on the center’s first floor to address ongoing health disparities.
• Life Skills & Community Engagement opportunities will come in the form of financial literacy, parenting, nutrition and home buying classes, as well as a dedicated space for a wide range of community engagement activities.
• Building off financial literacy, an on-site credit union will function as a hub for Financial Services , providing increased financial security for households. It will help people establish and build a solid credit history, provide opportunities to insure loans and grow savings at no cost and offer flexibility for loan repayments. It will also provide micro-financing options for start-ups that graduate from the Entrepreneurship Hub.
• In an effort to safeguard legacy residents from displacement, the Transformation Center will also feature Housing in the form of a 25-unit, new construction multifamily community adjacent to the main building. The residential building will include a mix of two and three bedroom units, in addition to one four-bedroom unit. Thirteen units will be at or below 30% AMI.

Invest Atlanta will contribute a $2 million BeltLine Tax Allocation District (TAD) increment grant to help fund the 25 housing units at the Transformation Center in support of Mayor Dickens’ goal of creating or preserving 20,000 affordable housing units by 2030.

“We are proud of our longstanding partnership with the City of Refuge that continues to close economic, social and wellness gaps in historically disinvested neighborhoods,” comments Dr. Eloisa Klementich, president and CEO of Invest Atlanta. “Our BeltLine TAD investment in the Transformation Center in collaboration with great partners adds to the more than $118 million of Invest Atlanta investment in this area in the last five years.”

City of Refuge is also the recipient of a $3 million federal New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) through Atlanta Emerging Markets and Capital One, which aims to encourage development and economic growth in communities that have experienced disinvestment over the years.

The affordable housing component of the Transformation Center also received funding support from the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta and TogetherATL.

Launched in late 2022, the “Breaking Barriers, Building Momentum” capital campaign quickly exceeded its original goal of raising $25 million, prompting City of Refuge to raise its goal to $33,125,000 that will enable the organization to provide expanded opportunities for men, women and children to escape poverty and thrive in the community.

For more information on the Transformation Center and City of Refuge’s capital campaign, visit cityofrefugeatl.org .

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