Forty-six new apartments now stand where a crumbling, 74-year-old public housing complex once crowded East Castle Street in Murfreesboro. The Tennessee Housing Development Agency and the Murfreesboro Housing Authority held a grand opening and ribbon-cutting for Parkside Apartments on July 30, marking the formal handoff from construction crews to returning residents.
The new complex includes eight one-bedroom, 20 two-bedroom, 16 three-bedroom, and two four-bedroom units, arranged as modern two-story rowhouses across six residential buildings surrounding a central green space, according to MHM Architects. That design replaces Highland Heights, the eight-building, 60-unit concrete-block complex built on the site in 1952 that had come to suffer from high density, crime, and severe parking shortages, per Cauthen & Associates. The original layout had squeezed 60 units onto just 20 parking spaces.
Parkside sits on East Castle Street near Patterson Park and downtown, according to a City of Murfreesboro, TN — Government video announcing the project. The city describes the development as preserving affordable housing opportunities while giving residents updated homes and amenities, including grilling areas, landscaped common areas, a playground, a computer room, and sidewalks meant to encourage a walkable neighborhood.
How the Redevelopment Was Financed
The rebuild carried a multi-source price tag. Financing included $10.5 million in Low-Income Housing Tax Credit equity awarded by THDA, a $600,000 grant from THDA’s Tennessee Housing Trust Fund, and a $12 million community development loan from Fifth Third Bank, the agency detailed in its announcement…