A Megachurch Owns 270 Acres Outside Atlanta. It Just Broke Ground on About 390 Homes for Middle-Income Families

• New Birth Missionary Baptist Church broke ground on New Birth Village in Stonecrest, Georgia
• The 33-acre first site is expected to deliver about 390 homes
• The church owns 270 contiguous acres in DeKalb County
• The homes target teachers, nurses, first-time buyers and others priced out of metro Atlanta

New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, the Atlanta-area megachurch, held a groundbreaking and blessing ceremony on 21 June 2026 for New Birth Village, a planned community of about 390 homes on church land, Urbanize Atlanta reported.

The development sits on 33 acres at 6370 Woodrow Road in Stonecrest, DeKalb County, about 17 miles east of downtown Atlanta near The Mall at Stonecrest. It is being led by the church’s New Birth Community Development Corporation and will be built in phases. The church owns 270 contiguous acres in the county and was described as “the largest land-owning Black church in the U.S. right now.”

The homes are aimed at middle-class households who earn too much for subsidised housing but still find ownership out of reach, including young professionals, first-time buyers, public safety workers, seniors, teachers and nurses. Down payment assistance programmes are part of the offer, and buyers will have limited options to customise exteriors.

It has not been a quick journey. A ceremonial groundbreaking for an earlier phase, The Benison ATL, took place two years before, with full construction originally expected in autumn 2024 but not delivered on that schedule. The latest ceremony signals the church is pressing on with a larger, multi-phase plan.

Metro Atlanta has become a major destination for Jamaicans and other Caribbean migrants, many moving south from New York and Florida in search of cheaper homes. A Black church using its own acreage to create a pathway to ownership for working families speaks directly to them. For churches in Jamaica with large landholdings, the project raises a question worth asking: could church land support planned, titled housing for members and teachers, nurses and police officers, rather than sit idle or be lost to informal settlement?

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