COLUMBUS, OHIO — The NRP Group has broken ground on Sinclair Apartments, a 180-unit affordable housing community in Columbus. In partnership with the City of Columbus Housing Division, the transit-oriented development will be developed with tax-credit funding support from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency and Huntington National Bank. Located at 5055 Sinclair Ave., the property will be reserved for Columbus-area residents who earn between 30 and 70 percent of the area median income. The three-building complex will replace Alrosa Villa, a live music venue that closed in 2020. Completion of the project is slated for 2023.
DISTRICT HEIGHTS, MD. — Washington, D.C.-based Dantes Community Partners (DCP), in a joint venture with New York-based Jonathan Rose Cos., has acquired The Avanti Apartments. The 930-unit workforce housing community is located in District Heights, about 10.9 miles from Washington, D.C. Dragone Realty Investments and GMF Capital sold the property to the joint venture for $164 million. CBRE represented the sellers in the transaction. Built in 1960, The Avanti includes 26 apartment buildings with a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. The property offers 372 new units of income-restricted housing. Twenty percent of units are affordable at 50 percent of area medium income (AMI) and another 20 percent of units are affordable at 80 percent AMI. Community amenities include two swimming pools, a two-story clubhouse, pool house, fitness center, business center, dog park, playground, jogging/walking trails and a picnic area. DCP and Jonathan Rose Cos. will implement resident services and programming and invest in capital improvements to upgrade resident amenities, enhance curb appeal and drive down utility costs and consumption through targeted eco-friendly improvements. Located at 6501 Hil-Mar Drive, the property is situated five miles from the Branch Avenue Metro Station and five miles from One Town Center, the …
NEWARK, N.J. — Fairstead, an investment firm with three offices along the East Coast, and Maine-based LIHC Investment Group have purchased the 691-unit Essex Plaza seniors affordable housing portfolio in Newark. The portfolio consists of 13 buildings. The partnership plans to invest in capital improvements, including the enhancement of the portfolio’s proptech features, sustainability and community programming. Information about income restrictions for the portfolio was not released. Dane Global represented the buyer and seller in the transaction.
PALMDALE, CALIF. — RAAM Construction has broken ground on the construction Palmdale Terrace, an affordable multifamily property located at SW 25th Street East and East Avenue in Palmdale. The project team includes Meta Housing Corp., Western Community Housing, AMJ Construction Management and Y&M Architects. Slated for completion in May 2023, Palmdale Terrace will feature 151 apartments in a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom layouts. All units will offer fully equipped kitchens and bathrooms. On-site amenities include community gathering areas, a shaded picnic area, a large children’s play structure and a dog park. Additionally, two units will be for on-site managers. The residences are reserved for individuals and families earning between 30 percent and 60 percent of Los Angeles County’s median income. Pacific Western Bank provided a $40.5 million construction loan for the project.
PATERSON, N.J. — A partnership between multifamily developer WinnCos and Argus Ellison Group has begun construction on a $26 million affordable housing project in the Northern New Jersey community of Paterson. The 74-unit complex will be located on the site of a historic mill that was originally built in the 1870s. About 70 percent (52) of the units will be reserved for renters earning 50 percent or less of the area median income (AMI), while the remainder will be designated for households earning 80 percent or less of AMI. Construction is scheduled for a late-2022 completion.
KING OF PRUSSIA, PA. — Morgan Properties has purchased two separate multifamily portfolios in the Southeast totaling 4,724 units. The portfolios comprise 18 communities in four states: Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina. The King of Prussia-based investor acquired the portfolios from Charleston-based Middle Street Partners (MSP) and Massachusetts-based Northland Investment Corp. for a combined $780.5 million. The MSP portfolio comprises 4,102 units spread across 15 Class B and workforce housing communities in the following markets: Columbia, S.C.; Fayetteville, N.C.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Augusta, Ga.; Greenville, S.C.; and Charlotte. The Northland portfolio comprises Windward at the Villages, The Royal St. George and Village Place, all located in West Palm Beach, Fla. Berkadia Institutional Investors brokered the $132.5 million portfolio sale. Morgan Properties plans to execute a $47.5 million value-add repositioning strategy throughout both portfolios that includes washer and dryer installations; kitchen upgrades such as new backsplashes, granite countertops and stainless steel appliances; Amazon Hub package rooms; bike-share programs; new fitness equipment; and upgraded outdoor amenity spaces with grills, new furniture and fireplaces. The firm also plans to hire more than 90 new employees from the portfolio of acquired properties, which will drive Morgan’s total employee count to over 2,600 nationwide.
EAST ORANGE, N.J. — Locally based brokerage firm Gebroe-Hammer Associates has negotiated the $113 million sale of a 641-unit workforce housing portfolio in the Northern New Jersey community of East Orange. The portfolio consists of 10 transit-oriented properties that are all located within two miles of one another in the city’s downtown area. Milrose, a private investment group based in Central New Jersey, sold the portfolio to Spaxel. Joseph Brecher, David Oropeza and Niko Nicolaou of Gebroe-Hammer brokered the deal.
LONG BEACH AND WEST CARSON, CALIF. — R.D. Olson Construction has broken ground on two affordable housing communities in Los Angeles County: Anaheim and Walnut in Long Beach and West Carson Villas in West Carson. The projects are slated for completion by summer 2023. Developed by Bridge Housing in partnership with the City of Long Beach and the Long Beach Housing Authority, Anaheim and Walnut will feature 207,000 square feet of mixed-use space at 1500 E. Anaheim St. in Long Beach. The $44 million project will offer 88 housing units in a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom layouts for formerly homeless seniors (age 55 or older) and low-income families that earn between 30 percent and 60 percent of area median income (AMI). The property will include four levels of residential space over the ground-floor commercial space and a three-story parking structure. The fourth-floor terrace of the parking structure features amenities including a tot lot, exercise equipment, barbecues, seating areas, trellises, community planters and rubber surface flooring. SVA Architects is serving as architect for the project. PATH Ventures, in partnership with the Los Angeles County Development Authority, is developing West Carson Villas at 22801-22905 S. Vermont Ave. in West Carson. …
NEW YORK CITY — Greystone has provided two Fannie Mae acquisition loans totaling $17.5 million for a pair of affordable seniors housing properties totaling 151 units in the New York City area. In the first deal, Greystone originated a $12.4 million loan for Highland Avenue Senior Apartments, an 88-unit community in Yonkers that was built in 2008. In the second transaction, the company provided $5.1 million in acquisition financing for 2120 Hughes Avenue, a 63-unit property in The Bronx that was constructed in 1995. Dan Sacks and Ilan Bassali of Greystone originated the loans on behalf of the borrower, Heritage Affordable Communities LLC.
By Taylor Williams For lenders and investors in New York City’s affordable housing market, accurately underwriting rent growth, operating costs and long-term asset appreciation can be a tricky proposition in today’s economic environment. To be fair, buyers and financiers of affordable housing properties in many U.S. markets are being forced to adjust and recalculate their metrics due to forces they can’t control. Yet macroeconomic factors like rising inflation, which puts heavy pressure on construction and operating costs, can often seem more acute in the Big Apple, where the cost of living and doing business is already higher than virtually anywhere else in the country. Economic Drivers The labor and materials costs for the renovations and rehabilitations that many affordable housing communities need are rising. According to Producer Price Index data supplied by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the month of August, the latest report available at the time of this writing, the aggregate cost of construction materials had risen by 19 percent from August 2019. Much of this rise in materials costs is due to disruption of the global supply chain via COVID-19, causing developers of much-needed housing stock to incur heftier budgets and longer construction timelines on …