Standard Communities has acquired Bridgeview Village Apartments, the largest privately owned affordable community in Charleston, South Carolina.
Built in 1971, and acquired via a long-term ground lease, Bridgeview Village is a 100% affordable community with 300 units in 26 residential buildings on a 22-acre site. All units are covered by a project-based Section 8 housing assistance payment contract.
Officials at Standard Communities, the affordable housing division of Standard Cos, led a public-private partnership in acquiring the development. The transaction involved the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), South Carolina State Housing Finance and Development Authority (SC Housing), and Housing On Merit.
With a total capitalization of over $97 million, including a $22 million renovation, the transaction was financed with low-income housing tax credits arranged in partnership with SC Housing and purchased by Alliant Capital, with additional financing provided by Citi Community Capital. The seller was Highridge Costa Cos.
The deal preserves and extends the affordability of all 300 units for the long term. A comprehensive tenant-in-place renovation will invest more than $70,000 per unit to address deferred maintenance and the construction of a new state-of-the-art amenity center. The renovation also will upgrade unit interiors, including flooring, countertops, and cabinetry, as well as enhance safety and security features with added site lighting, access control systems, surveillance cameras, and monitoring, according to Standard officials.
The project also will benefit from several green energy initiatives, including LED light fixtures, low-flow plumbing fixtures in units, as well as photovoltaic and rain catchment systems on the new amenity center.
Standard Communities’ acquisition and rehabilitation of Bridgeview Village Apartments follows the October announcement of Standard’s acquisition and renovation of Canebreak Apartments, a 120-unit affordable apartment community in Summerville, South Carolina.
“Standard has built a track record of preserving affordable housing in South Carolina, and, more broadly, we have created and/or preserved over 3,000 units of affordable housing on the East Coast,” said Tommy Attridge, Standard’s director of Southeast production. “We look forward to continued work in South Carolina to address its affordable housing crisis by creating vibrant, affordable housing communities that strengthen the economic and social fabric of neighborhoods.”
Based in Los Angeles and New York, Standard Cos. has a portfolio of approximately 13,700 apartment units, including 9,900 that are affordable, and has completed more than $2.6 billion of affordable housing acquisitions and rehabilitations nationwide.
