Steve Clinton,
Chief Financial Officer
A joint partnership of Enterprise Community Development and Durrani Development Corp. has secured $23.1 million in financing for the development of the Alabama Avenue Apartments in Washington, D.C.’s Ward 8.
The District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency, known as DCHFA, underwrote the financing, which consists of federal and local low income housing tax credit equity.
In Ward 8, as in other neighborhoods within the nation’s capital, a dramatic need exists for larger, family-sized apartment homes. When completed, the newly built multifamily development will be a 100 percent affordable community.
With a total development cost of $49.2 million, Alabama Avenue Apartments will feature 26 three-bedroom apartment homes, 28 two-bedroom apartments and 32 one-bedroom units. Nine of the residences will be reserved for residents earning 60 percent of area median income, while 59 units will be cached for residents earning 50 percent of area median income. A remaining 18 apartments are designated as permanent supportive housing. This means they will be set aside for residents earning 30 percent or less of area median income. These renters will benefit from receiving local rental supplements.
Constructed in the Garfield Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C., Alabama Avenue Apartments will be situated less than two miles from the Congress Heights Metro Station, and within walking distance of The Crest at Skyland Town Center, a shopping center featuring a supermarket, pharmacy and other retail outlets.
DCHFA issues tax-exempt mortgage revenue bonds to lower developers’ costs associated with rental housing acquisition, construction and rehabilitation. It does so through its Multifamily Lending and Neighborhood investment and Capital Markets divisions.
Its goal is to offer for-profit and non-profit developers low-cost predevelopment, construction and permanent financing that will support the creation of affordable rental housing in the District of Columbia. Four months ago, DCHFA funded development of a $105 million affordable community in the District of Columbia.
In late February, DCHFA backed the rehabilitation of 202 affordable apartments at sites scattered across Wards 7 and 8 of the city with $43.1 million of tax exempt bonds for the acquisition and rehabilitation of a 16-building community formerly known as WDC 1. That property includes residences in the Anacostia, Marshall Heights and Fort Dupont neighborhoods. DCHFA also underwrote $33.4 million in federal low income housing tax equity and $6.4 million in D.C. local low income housing tax equity to finance the redevelopment.
