With key support from the City of Savannah, the Pinyan/Procida Development Group was awarded a highly competitive 9% Low-Income Housing Tax Credits from the State of Georgia’s Department of Community Affairs (DCA), paving the way for 41 affordable apartments to be built on vacant land at 1700 Drayton Street.

The DCA’s award of the tax credits for the estimated $20 million project was made possible in large part by the promise of a $1,230,000 Savannah Affordable Housing Fund (SAHF) development loan to be granted if DCA awarded the tax credits. The project’s tax credit application received three valuable points due to the SAHF loan pushing it into the final top four scores of the 20 applicants.

Savannah City Council authorized the Community Housing Services Agency (CHSA) to make the SAHF loan during a regular meeting on April 10, 2025. The SAHF loan is expected to leverage about $19 million in tax credit and other needed investment for the project.

The project’s application was also aided by the Chatham Savannah Authority for the Homeless (CSAH). With CSAH support, the developer secured 29 project-based rental assistance vouchers to further ensure that rents are affordable in the new development. CSAH will also help arrange resident services at the future site.

In February of 2021, the City of Savannah sold the property at 1700 Drayton to the Pinyan/Procida Development Group after declaring the vacant property surplus the previous year. The sale was approved by City Council after the company scored the highest in a request for proposals seeking to build affordable rental housing development on the property. The City backed the development’s tax credit application for the fifth time this year.

This year, City Council also approved support for two other tax credit applications, but neither were awarded a tax credits. The Sustainable Fellwood Phase 1 proposal to renovate 110 affordable apartments at 1401 Fellwood Dr. was next in line in the scoring process but did not receive tax credits. An application for the Gateway Gardens, a proposal for 78 affordable apartments off Wheaton Street, also fell short.