Washington, D.C. – The tangled mess surrounding the Columbia Towers low-income housing complex continues to look worse and worse upon inspection.
According to a new report from the Washington Free Beacon, millions of dollars have been steered to the building’s co-owners by Warnock while in the Senate.
Warnock Steered $16 Million to Project That Benefited Co-Owner of Church’s Controversial Apartment Complex
By: Alana Goodman
Georgia Democratic senator Raphael Warnock steered $16.4 million in federal earmarks to a project that benefited the co-owner of his controversial low-income apartment complex.
The funding was intended to construct a trail connecting a residential and commercial complex known as “Pittsburgh Yards” with other portions of Atlanta’s BeltLine. The developer of Pittsburgh Yards is Columbia Ventures, part of the Columbia group of companies that co-owns and operates a low-income housing complex with Warnock’s church.
The funding raises questions about whether Warnock’s business relationship with Columbia had any bearing on his funding decision. Warnock did not respond to a request for comment.
Warnock’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he serves as senior pastor and CEO, in 2005 “formed a partnership with Columbia Residential to rehabilitate [a] dilapidated high-rise” and turned the building into low-income apartments. Ebenezer and Columbia are co-owners of the business through a joint venture, with Ebenezer owning 99 percent and Columbia owning the remaining 1 percent, according to a state grant application filed by the entities in August.
Last November, Warnock and Sen. Jon Ossoff (D., Ga.) announced that they had helped secure the funding for the trail project, which would “construct approximately two miles of the Southside Trail component of the Atlanta BeltLine from Pittsburgh Yards to Boulevard Crossing Park.”
One of the more ambitious projects is Pittsburgh Yards, a 31-acre mixed-use development that includes commercial and residential buildings. The property is owned by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and was developed in partnership with Columbia Ventures.
Read More at the Washington Free Beacon
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