The final phase of the Azalea Street redevelopment is getting underway soon.
The City of Hinesville held a groundbreaking Monday morning for the final seven homes to be built as part of the Azalea Street revitalization project. The seven homes, to be built by Bryant Quality Homes, will close phase 3B of the development.
More than 40 units, including single-family homes and townhomes, have been constructed and are occupied, boasted City Manager Kenneth Howard, who has shepherded the project since its beginning more than 20 years ago.
“We’re excited about this project because it allows us to do something that has never been done,” he said.
“It is a long time coming,” said Hinesville Mayor Karl Riles, “and it’s very important to the community.”
Now living in Pooler, Brandon Herring will be moving into one of the phase 3B homes once those are finished.
“It kind of means the world,” he said. “We’re just thankful the city has made a way for us.”
Herring grew up in Hinesville, across from Bradwell Institute, so he is familiar with the Azalea Street neighborhood and its legacy as a place where neighbors look after each other.
“I have lifelong friends who grew up in this part of town,” he said.
His kids have seen the building plans and are looking at which room they want, Herring acknowledged.
“They are in the planning phases right now,” he said.
Riles said Azalea Street’s neighborhood long has been seen as strongly-knit.
“Everyone knows everybody,” he said. The Azalea Street redevelopment also has been cited by the Georgia Downtown Association for excellence in problem solving and Housing and Urban Development community development block grant success story.
“We have homeowners who never imagined they could own a new home,” Howard said.
Along with the new homes, the city has put nearly $9.4 million into improvements in the neighborhood, including housing, utility and drainage upgrades and new roads.
“The Hinesville we have now is built on places like the AZ,” county commission Chairman Donald Lovette said, referring to the nickname for Azalea Street. “They were a stabilizing factor in the fiber of Hinesville.”
Howard said the city first began looking at what it could do in the Azalea Street neighborhood more than 20 years ago. On one side of the street were homes built in the 1970s and 1980s. On the other side were homes dating back to the 1950s and the typical homeowner was an African American female in her 70s, Howard noted.
But in building new homes, the city didn’t want to “gentrify” the neighborhood, pricing its residents out of the market.
“So you can imagine the challenge we had,” Howard said. “The goal was to build new houses, but to make it affordable for those who lived here all their lives.”
The city started pursuing grants and at first, the state Department of Community Affairs turned down the city’s request. Howard recalled then Mayor Tom Ratcliffe said the state agency didn’t understand the project, so they went to Atlanta to present it to them in person.
Eventually, Hinesville became the first city to receive two grants for the same project — one for $800,000 in a community development block grant and the other a $300,000 community housing improvement project (CHIP) grant.
Howard said the plan for the final phases was to build larger, more market- driven homes. But the city was forced to pivot because of a lack of affordability. The city is partnering with the Hinesville Housing Authority for the final phase. The HHA will lead the construction of the homes and will work with qualifying clients on becoming first-time home owners.
“It’s always been about making sure the people who call it home can continue to do so,” Mayor Riles said. “The Azalea Street project is proof that when a community comes together, amazing things can happen.”