The Community Builders, Inc. (TCB), a leading nonprofit affordable housing developer, has acquired 19 distressed multifamily properties in Cincinnati from Fannie Mae.
The $10.6 million portfolio purchase involves 618 apartments.
“I am delighted to announce TCB’s newest investment in Cincinnati’s neighborhoods,” said Terri Hamilton Brown, TCB Midwest regional director. “This acquisition is the start of a long-term commitment to stabilize and transform these distressed properties for the benefit of the families who live in them, as well as their neighbors.”
The deal is the first step in a multi-year preservation and improvement plan developed by TCB as part of the Cincinnati Multifamily Housing Consortium (CMHC). The CMHC, a local 20-member collective, was formed to address the troubled property portfolio that fell into foreclosure in 2010.
Located in scattered sites in the Avondale, Walnut Hills, Over-the-Rhine, Paddock Hills, Sedamsville, and Madisonville neighborhoods, the 19-property portfolio includes 36 buildings that range in size from two to 68 units. A 20th property in the foreclosed portfolio, located in Dayton, was not acquired by TCB.
The newest buildings in the portfolio were constructed in the early 1970s. The oldest buildings date back to the late 1880s. All of the sites, which house more than 1,200 people, have fallen into severe disrepair after years of neglect by previous owners.
TCB’s purchase was funded in part by a loan from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 grant that the organization received from the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2010 to help mitigate the impact of foreclosures in cities across America.
TCB is looking to do even more in Cincinnati. It is a finalist for a 2012 HUD Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant, together with the Cincinnati Public Schools and the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati, to fund employment, health, education, and leadership training for residents in Avondale. This proposal builds on years of planning by the Avondale Community Council and Avondale Comprehensive Development Corp.
