Affordable Housing Finance

Regional News

AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE • January 2009

MIDWEST

Wallick Cos., Stern-Hendy Merge

COLUMBUS, OHIO The Wallick Cos. and Stern-Hendy Properties have merged, creating the state’s largest owner and manager of affordable housing. Columbus-based Wallick owns and operates about 8,300 units, and Cincinnati-based Stern-Hendy has roughly 4,000 units.

Wallick’s management team will helm the day-to-day operations of the combined property management business, and Stern-Hendy’s principals, David Hendy and Brian Hendy, will join Wallick’s development team. The resulting entities will be renamed Wallick-Hendy Development, Wallick Construction, and Wallick-Hendy Properties.

Wilson Yard Gets $10 million

CHICAGO The Wilson Yard project, a $150 million redevelopment of a former Chicago Transit Authority rail yard, has closed on $10 million in New Markets Tax Credits (NMTCs).

The developer, Holsten Real Estate Development Corp., plans to build two mid-rise affordable housing developments on the site, totaling 178 lowincome housing tax credit units, 80 of which will be for families and 98 for low-income seniors. The 5.7-acre site will also include a Target store, roughly 21,000 square feet of retail space, and an existing ALDI grocery store. Enterprise Community Investment, Inc., provided the NMTC financing for the site acquisition and construction of Target.

NORTHEAST

HUD Rescues State Public Housing

NEW YORK CITY The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) will use a federal Sec. 8 rental subsidy to support state public housing that has been starved for cash for a decade.

Between the 1940s and the early 1970s, local housing authorities built 143 properties under the state’s public housing program, totaling 66,123 apartments. More than one-third were in New York City. The federal government paid no operating or rental subsidy to these projects. The state stopped writing checks for operating subsidy in 1998 to the remaining apartments.

For the last 10 years, NYCHA has siphoned money to its portfolio of state public housing. That’s one reason it’s facing a $177 million operating budget shortfall in fiscal 2009, though it doesn’t help that federal public housing funding is now only 82 percent of what the Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates the properties need. NYCHA also faced federal pressure to adopt project-based accounting, in which each property sustains itself based on its own subsidies and rents—terrible news for state public housing with practically no income.

The voucher funding will benefit 8,400 public housing apartments at 21 properties.

SOUTHEAST

Seniors Project Opens in Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. 940 Brevard Apartments, a 100-unit seniors community, has opened and is 100 percent occupied. Affordable to seniors who earn $13,500 or less, the units are a collaborative effort of The Communities Group, Crosland, LLC, and the Charlotte Housing Authority (CHA).

The urban-style project is adjacent to Crosland’s upscale historic redevelopment at Alpha Mill in Uptown. It includes indoor meeting and common area space, a fitness room, an outdoor patio, and other market-rate amenities.

The $13 million development was funded by federal and state tax credits and CHA loans. The city provided about $1 million in infrastructure funds.

WEST

Second Phase of New Dana Strand Redevelopment Opens

LOS ANGELES The Wilmington Boulevard Townhomes has opened its doors, marking the second phase of the four-part redevelopment of New Dana Strand, a former World War II public housing development in Wilmington. This phase includes 116 townhomes reserved for families earning no more than 60 percent of the area median income. The project is a collaboration of Mercy Housing California, the Los Angeles Community Design Center, and the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles.

Mid-Peninsula Opens Seniors Development

MILPITAS Mid-Peninsula Housing Coalition has opened DeVries Place Senior Apartments, a 103-unit affordable housing development. The project includes a new four-story building as well as a rehabilitated historic home, complete with community rooms, three one-bedroom apartments, and a dining room. Financing for the $32.1 million project was provided through the city of Milpitas Redevelopment Agency, Santa Clara County, the Housing Trust Fund of Santa Clara, U.S. Bank, National Equity Fund, KB Home, Sobrato Affordable Housing Fund, and Opportunity Fund. HKIT Architects designed the main building, and Rothschild Schwartz Architects designed the renovation.