TIFTON — Ground broke Wednesday on Nine Oaks Apartments, a place that developers call a bright symbol of South Tifton’s future, but also one that recognizes the past.

Steve Brooks, CFO of IDP Properties, said the complex will be for lower-income families. Four buildings will be erected and the units will be a mix of one, two and three bedrooms. Studio 8 Design Architects and ASA Engineering & Surveying, both of Valdosta, will be responsible for its look.

In addition to the housing, Brooks said there will be a community center, community garden and supportive services for residents.

IDP stands for integrity, diversity and purpose, Brooks said.

Construction will take approximately 14 months, he said. Fifty-six families will move in during a period of several months.

“This will become their home,” Brooks said.

Mayor Julie Smith said the complex is an “$11 million investment on this square in the dirt.”

Only five years earlier, Smith said Tifton did not know what it would be doing here. Now, it’s destined to become “safe, affordable, attractive housing.”

City Manager Pete Pyrzenski talked about the vision for South Tifton and how this complex is making it a reality. He quoted Councilman Johnny Terrell’s dreams for this community, “Long time coming.”

Nine Oaks is part of Terrell’s district.

“Today has come, Mr. Johnny,” Pyrzenski said.

Pyrzenski said the name Nine Oaks bears a special meaning.

“Sixty years ago, lives were lost and something happened to the community that affected the children.”

On the morning of March 3, 1959, a school bus headed for Wilson and Tift County Industrial (since renamed J.T. Reddick) hit a bump on then-unpaved Lower Brookfield Road, went out of control and fell into a pond.

Nine children drowned in the accident, Gloria Jean Davis, Rufus Harold Green, Bernice Henderson, Henry Edward Johnson, Bobby King, Artie Lee Simmons, Earlene Wilcox and brothers Billy Tabor and Leroy Tabor Jr.

“It’s so important we capture history,” Pyrzenski said.

He invited longtime neighborhood resident Jeremiah White to speak.

“I do not come bringing statistics, facts, figures,” White said.

Instead, he remembered that day.

“I was in the ninth grade,” White said, adding Tift County Schools were completely segregated in 1959 and White was a student at Wilson High School. “This was the day somebody came back to the schoolhouse and told them about the bus.”

Every teacher who had a car set out for Brookfield, White said. When they arrived, they saw many people working to pull the students out of the bus.

“What kind of people were those people? They weren’t white people, they weren’t Black people. A whole bunch of Black kids on a bus and they didn’t worry about the color of their skin.”

White and his siblings ran from Wilson High to their home to tell their father about the accident. The Tabors were White’s father’s grandchildren. Some of the Tabors’ siblings attended the groundbreaking. Most were born after their brothers’ deaths, White said.

“My Dad sat on the front step and he cried,” White said. “I had never seen him cry in all of my life and he didn’t cry anymore since, but he cried.”

White said the complex is a move forward.

White referred to Terrell’s dreams for the area and to the Sam Cooke song, “A Change Is Gonna Come.”

“It’s a long time coming but I know a change is gonna come.”

Nine oaks will be planted on the property to further symbolize its meaning.

“In 2017, the City of Tifton began working on a redevelopment plan for South Tifton,” Brooks said.

Plans for the complex began to take shape two years later.

“In early 2020, we were awarded this opportunity by the City of Tifton.”

From there, he said they applied to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for an allocation of lower-income housing tax credits.

“That is a very competitive process,” Brooks, adding in 2020, 93 applications were submitted in the state, with 39 approved. Only 15 were approved for rural Georgia.

“We were awarded this project by one point,” Brooks said, crediting the city’s efforts to make Nine Oaks a reality.

Among the aids to its application with the Department of Community Affairs was the complex being part of a redevelopment plan.

Brooks said he was on hand for the August groundbreaking of the new youth center, which will be just around the corner. Land for it had been cleared with the removal of Captains Point trailer park.

As part of the ceremony, Smith had gifts for IDP: two copies of Tiftonopoly, a Monopoly game with local landmarks. She compared the games to the Nine Oaks project. Monopoly, Smith said, is “an opportunity to invest.”

“The opportunity to build up something,” Smith said. “You are doing that for our community.”

Both Smith and Brooks recognized the Urban Redevelopment Agency for its efforts as well as Tifton City Council.

County Commissioner Melissa Hughes offered a prayer for the new complex.