CPC, HPD and SHF Close $137M Financing for Bronx Affordable Housing Portfolio
A partnership between Community Preservation Corporation (CPC), New York City’s Department of Housing and Preservation (HPD) and Settlement Housing Fund (SHF) have closed the acquisition and construction financing for a 228-unit affordable housing portfolio in the Bronx, Commercial Observer can first report.
The total development cost is approximately $144 million. CPC contributed roughly $7.5 million in construction financing, and HPD contributed $72 million in construction financing. The rest of the financing came from SHF’s funds and deferred reserves.
“We’re interested in doing affordable housing work from a mission perspective that helps provide quality affordable housing to low- and moderate-income New Yorkers,” said Brandie Moreno, assistant vice president of New York City originations at CPC. “There is a large population of formerly homeless tenants in the buildings that will continue to have housing from this transaction.”
The 228 units are spread among buildings at 1415-1417 Wythe Place, 690-692 East 182nd Street, 737 East 187th Street, 1466 Grand Concourse and 751 East 187th Street. Around 50 percent of the units were used as homeless shelter overflow, and the rest were regular rent-stabilized tenant units with leases. SHF plans to spend three years doing significant rehabilitation on the portfolio and convert the financing into a permanent 30-year loan so the nonprofit affordable housing developer can continue to own and operate the portfolio, according to Judy Herbstman, vice president for real estate at SHF.
“It’s great for the buildings because they are going to get a huge capital upgrade,” Alexa Sewell, president of SHF, said. “It’s fantastic for the tenants who will be living in the condition that they deserve to be living in, which is safe and decent affordable housing. And it’s great for their neighborhood because these buildings will be markedly improved.”
The Wythe Place building, a five-story walk-up built in the 1920s, was “the first nonprofit acquisition through the Neighborhood Pillars Down Payment Assistance Fund,” reported Curbed. The website went on to explain that Neighborhood Pillars is “an effort run by the city’s Department of Housing and Preservation that provides low-interest loans and tax exemptions to nonprofit and for-profit developers to purchase and maintain a property’s affordability.”
“We’re honored to be part of this partnership,” said Robert Riggs, senior vice president and regional director of New York City & Long Island at CPC. “That’s going to take these buildings that were distressed in not good ownership and seek debt settlement so that the tenants can get some relief and get into healthy, affordable buildings that they can be proud to live in. That’s our mission. And these are the kind of deals we’ll keep doing.”
Update: This story originally misattributed source material. This has been corrected. We apologize for the error.
Emily Fu can be reached at efu@commercialobserver.com.
