Affordable apartments are on the way to the South City area as general contractor and multifamily specialist Patton & Taylor Enterprises LLC is preparing to begin construction on Forum Flats, a collection of 205 units at the corner of Danny Thomas Boulevard and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard near the FedEx Forum.

One-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments will be built across four buildings on a 4.25-acre parcel, with amenities including a fitness center and laundry facilities. The affordable housing project is financed by low-income tax credits.

“There’s plenty of affordable housing in the Memphis area. However, there’s not plenty of quality affordable housing here,” said Cameron Taylor, chief manager of Patton & Taylor Enterprises LLC.

The developer is Nashville-based Elmington Capital Group, which Patton & Taylor is also working with on the 177-unit Patterson Flats and 155-unit Uptown Flats. Construction will wrap in spring on the Downtown multifamily projects.

“I think there’s room to grow for all sorts of income levels in housing for the entire Downtown area,” said Taylor. “The outlook is promising.”

Patton & Taylor is also responsible for building the 269-unit multifamily component of the Crosstown Concourse redevelopment, dubbed The Parcels.

The corner parcel for Forum Flats has been cleared and stripped, but poor weather over the past month has slowed work crews.

“The weather has not been terribly favorable for site work, so it has hampered progress,” said Taylor.

The project, which was designed by Shapiro & Company Architects, Inc., should be completed by June of next year.

Nearby, across the street, the historic Universal Life office building is being renovated, and the $250 million affordable housing initiative dubbed South City is going up to the south at 521 Vance Park Place. That redevelopment of Foote Homes, the city's last public housing project, will transform an aging 420-unit set of buildings with a new complex of 712 mixed-income apartments.