More Business News:
Developer Tackles Major Apartment Building Makeover in W. Baltimore
.jpg)
Residents living at a 40-year-old apartment complex in Baltimore's troubled West Baltimore area are enjoying remodeled apartments, bright and airy great rooms, a fitness center, a picnic area and health services - all without leaving home. If you want curb appeal, that's there, too. A spacious, new, two-story entry is inviting to both residents and visitors, and fresh landscaping is greening up the exterior.
The former 301-unit Greenhill Apartments have also been re-named, and are now known as the MonteVerde Apartments. The apartments are available to seniors over 55 and non-elderly persons with disabilities. Rents are based on household income and all utilities are included.
"Our residents are delighted with this transformation," said Andrew M. Vincent, director of Greater Baltimore Affordable Housing Corporation, Inc., an affiliate of AHC, Inc. of Virginia. "We feel the same way they do, considering the volatile economic weather we had to steer through to get this deal done."
Vincent said the tenant-in-place transformation came with a price tag of $30 million, including purchase of the property and its remodeling. Vincent said that financing the purchase and renovation of the apartment complex was daunting. He said that GBAHC had counted on the initial financing of tax credits through Freddie Mac, which collapsed before being taken over by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the sale of variable rate bonds by investment banker Merrill Lynch, which went out of business.
Creative solutions were needed, but they were complicated.
Through a combination of a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) from the City of Baltimore, agreement with a tax credit investor to purchase the credits above the new market price, transition to a complicated variable rate bond structure with swap, and negotiation of a seller note, GBAHC successfully bridged the financing gap. Closing the equity at 89.5 cents on the dollar - six cents above the tax credit market - was key to the project's viability. That was achieved through strategically selecting a tax credit investor who was also the construction lender, in order to make the deal happen at a return on tax credit investment below standard thresholds. Closing on the bonds and tax credits, as well as the start of renovations, took place in September 2008. Remodeling is currently on schedule and on budget with completion scheduled for late January. For the 230 residents - senior citizens and some adults with disabilities - the dramatic transformation of their apartments and the property is well underway.
"Through it all, we were determined to keep the deal together through a balance of creative solutions and hard work," Vincent said. "If we were to succeed, we had to address and solve every issue that arose. So far, I think we've done that."
The new MonteVerde Apartments is the third major apartment makeover in Baltimore by GHAHC, said Vincent. Two of its earlier projects, Owings Mills' Greenspring Overlook and the Barclay Greenmount Apartments, helped conserve 500 units of affordable housing in the Baltimore area.
File: monteverde renovation fact sheet.pdf
