Metro Atlanta extended-stay hotel conversion tackles blight and rent in 1 building

A former Peachtree Corners extended-stay hotel, the kind of place many Gwinnett County households turn to as a last resort, will soon house young adults leaving foster care and seniors on tight incomes in 73 apartments.

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The Gwinnett Housing Corporation opened Crest Pointe Village on Jimmy Carter Boulevard on Wednesday, and residents are expected to start moving in mid-November.

“What we’re looking to do is provide them stability and an option to not have to worry about excessive rents in an economy like this,” said Karen Ramsey, the housing corporation’s CEO.

Gwinnett County has one of the nation’s largest concentrations of extended-stay hotels, according to the housing corporation. In a 2020 study in Norcross, 84% of people surveyed said they used one as their residence.

“We as a nonprofit in the community decided that’s just not acceptable living conditions for our families,” Lejla Prljaca, the housing corporation’s chief development officer, told Channel 2 Gwinnett County bureau chief Matt Johnson.

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Each apartment has its own kitchen and bathroom, and rent is capped at 30% of a resident’s income. Seniors 62 and older can stay for good, while young adults 18 to 24 get case managers to help with school or work.

Laquasha Williams was 21 and living in a youth shelter after aging out of foster care when she toured the building in February.

“It makes you feel like you can get stability one day when you came from nothing,” Williams said in February.

Destiny Thomas, then 19, landed in the same shelter without ever being in foster care. Both qualify to apply but still have to clear screening.

“I didn’t think I was going to be anything,” Thomas said in February.

Prljaca said the project went from contract to Wednesday’s opening in under two years, quicker than building new.

Paying for it is harder.

It cost about $14.5 million, close to $200,000 per apartment, from nearly 20 sources, with Gwinnett County the biggest investor.

“If we had unlimited funding, we would definitely be doing two or three of these a year,” Prljaca said.

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