Developers: The Woda Group, LLC, and Parallel Housing, Inc.
Architects: Lott Barber (Phase II) and Pimsler Hoss (Phase III)
Major Funders: Community Affordable Housing Equity Corp.; Sugar Creek Realty; Housing Authority of Savannah; Georgia Department of Community Affairs; West Union Bank; Savannah Bank; Huntington Bank; city of Savannah
Developers arranged hundreds of apartments around a new park on the site of a distressed public housing property in Savannah, Ga.— without any help from the federal HOPE VI program.
It cost $26.6 million to develop Sustainable Fellwood II and III. That's less than $126,700 per unit for the 210 apartments. It was the first affordable housing property in the state to earn LEED certification, achieving Gold for Phase II and Platinum for Phase III, according to Ohio-based The Woda Group, LLC, which developed Fellwood in partnership with Parallel Housing, Inc.
Two years of data from the first phase of 100 apartments completed in 2009 show a reduction of 25 percent for electric usage and 30 percent for water compared with similar properties.
The apartments have an 85-kilowatt array of solar panels and a 4,000-gallon rainwater harvesting system.
The 25-acre site was once the location of Fellwood Homes, 350 units of public housing built in the 1940s. The Housing Authority of Savannah vacated the site several years ago, though any qualified resident had a right to return to the new apartments.
Retail and some homeownership are also in the works for the site. About 20 percent of the apartments at Fellwood rent at market rates; the rest are split between public housing and low-income affordable housing.
Sustainable Fellwood II and III opened 110 family and 100 seniors apartments in December 2011. The apartments now have a waiting list with 400 names.
