Multi-Housing News - April 2009 - (Page 17)

owner and manager of affordable and mixed-income housing, according to Galante. The company’s emphasis is on community revitalization and transit-oriented development. One of its most recent projects was North Beach Place, which involved a teardown of an early-1950s public housing development in San Francisco. All 229 public housing units were replaced, and another 112 units were added. “Traditionally, when it comes to tearing down old public housing, people try to lower density, but we added density in a totally redesigned way,” Galante says. “And we didn’t just add density, but we provided a feeling of ownership to the individual residents, while adding community services like Trader Joe’s, Starbucks, and a local ballet school on the ground floor. No one would know it’s affordable housing, because of the quality of the architecture and the quality of the management.” She calls “the meltdown of the financial sector” the top obstacle to affordable housing development today. It has challenged all leading participants in affordable housing, because the financial institutions were the primary purchasers of low-income tax credits, which provided substantial amounts of equity to create new affordable housing. “We are working to find a new class of tax credit investors,” Galante says. BRIDGE Housing is parlaying its relationships with major regional employers, from Google to Chevron, to gauge their interest in affordable housing development. Some of these same companies were active tax credit investors in the early years of the program— in the late 1980s—but affordable housing developers began to rely more on financial institutions in the 1990s. “They became the entire industry,” Galante says. “We really need to get back to where we were in the late1980s and involve a wider range of participants in the process.” Carlisle Development Group Miami Number of units developed: 7,485 Regions: Florida Dollars in development: More than $1.2 billion Matthew Greer, executive officer Carlisle Development Group is a 12-year-old company whose mission is to combine the best of the for-profit and non-profit worlds to create affordable housing solutions, Greer says. “We pride ourselves on working with a lot of partners to help them achieve their vision of affordable housing in their communities.” Typical of Carlisle’s best work is Brownsville Transit Village, a transit-oriented development that uses land formerly owned by the county transit authority in Miami, which is expected to be complete in mid-2010, and the recently completed Royalton Hotel, the renovation of a 90-year-old historic hotel in the heart of downtown Miami into a facility providing housing and supportive services for formerly homeless downtown Miamians. A big challenge to developing affordable housing today is that gap financing is disappearing, Greer adds. Gap financing—the funds making up the difference between what you have and what you need, and which is most necessary in poorer urban infill areas—is falling victim to the tremendous budgetary pressures confronting local governments. The answer, Greer says, is “to be very creative in your financing, and to look more widely for partners who have a mission-oriented desire to create affordable housing and can bring some additional Enter Today www.multi-housingnews.com for entry form, fees and more information 16 categories including “transit-oriented” and “unbuilt” Winning projects will be published by Multi-Housing News and honored at the Design Excellence Awards Breakfast at Multi-Housing World Entries due June 30, 2009 www.multi-housingnews.com | April 2009 17 http://www.multi-housingnews.com http://www.multi-housingnews.com http://www.multi-housingnews.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Multi-Housing News - April 2009

Multi-Housing News - April 2009
Contents
From the Editor
Executive Insight: Sue Ansel
Finance: Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac
Quote of the Month
Market Forecast: Texas
Profile: Affordable Developers
Operations: Green Laundry Rooms
Technology: BIM
Kitchen & Bath: Tile Installation
Perspective: Doug Bibby, NMHC

Multi-Housing News - April 2009