Amazon Partners With Arlington County on $310M Financing for Affordable Housing
By Keith Loria December 15, 2021 3:15 pm
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Amazon (AMZN) has committed $160 million to preserve 1,334 affordable apartments at the Barcroft Apartments, a 60-acre complex in Arlington, Va., that is in the midst of being sold to an unnamed developer.
Arlington County will also supply $150 million in loans for the project through the Arlington County Industrial Development Authority and PNC Bank, financing the project through a line of credit.
The financing will help maintain long-term affordability with the units remaining available for people earning 60 percent of the area median income for 99 years and help ensure rents stay within reach of the current tenants.
The project is on track with construction starting early next year.
“We felt that Barcroft is an opportunity to not only invest in preservation of affordability, but to make sure that we’re doing our part to address the equity issues and all of this in preserving the affordability in diverse communities as well,” Catherine Buell, director of Amazon Housing Equity Fund, told Commercial Observer.
The investment is part of the $2 billion Amazon Housing Equity Fund, a commitment to preserve existing housing and create inclusive housing developments through low-rate loans and grants to housing partners, traditional and non-traditional public agencies, and minority-led organizations.
“As part of our strategy, we decided that we were going to focus on three areas, at least for year one, with the first one being preservation of affordability,” Buell said. “We really wanted to make sure that we were addressing what we saw as the critical issues in each jurisdiction. So, Barcroft is exactly what the Equity Fund was intended to do.”
Crystal House, a 16-acre site one block from Amazon’s future HQ2, was the company’s first investment earlier this year.
Located at 1130 S George Mason Drive, Barcroft Apartments is situated off the Columbia Pike corridor. It is one of the last affordable apartment communities in Arlington, according to Amazon.
The units currently have rents that are affordable to low-income households earning on average $77,400 for a family of four in Arlington.
Once the sale closes, Amazon noted the new owner will allow current residents to continue to live in their homes with their rents remaining at the current rent levels for the first year. Future rents will be capped at no more than a 3 percent increase per year.
Keith Loria can be reached at Kloria@commecialobserver.com.
