Affordable housing developers in the San Francisco Bay Area have a new $50 million revolving loan fund to help finance land acquisition in select locations near rail and bus lines.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) estimates that developers will be able to use the fund to help finance the acquisition of at least 20 to 30 acres around the region, which will support the development of 1,100 to 3,800 units of affordable housing, depending on the density of the projects.
The fund will be managed by the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF), which expects to close the first deal later this spring, with a $4.8 million loan to the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp. (TNDC) to buy a 22,000-square-foot parking lot in San Francisco. The nonprofit developer plans to build a 150-unit complex on the site, including ground floor retail space. TNDC hopes to attract the Tenderloin’s first full-service grocery store.
All loans made through the Bay Area Transit Oriented Affordable Housing Fund will be for projects located in neighborhoods designated by MTC and the Association of Bay Area Governments as a priority development area.
MTC officials approved a $10 million anchor commitment to establish the fund. The commission is the transportation planning and funding agency for the nine-county Bay Area.
Others investors include Morgan Stanley and Citi Community Capital, which each provided $12.5 million. The Ford Foundation and Living Cities, a collaborative of foundations and financial institutions, each invested $3 million.
Six community development financial institutions combined for another $8.5 million. This group is made up of LIIF, Corporation for Supportive Housing, Enterprise Community Loan Fund, Local Initiatives Support Corp., the Northern California Community Loan Fund, and Opportunity Fund.
The San Francisco Foundation provided $500,000 plus seed funding for the fund’s business plan, and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation provided a $100,000 grant to support the fund.
