Darryl Hicks • 11 min read
In Geoff’s 26 years, USA Properties has grown from seven employees to 400 and developed, through construction or acquisition and rehabilitation, over 11,000 units of affordable housing for families and seniors throughout California and Nevada. In addition, its subsidiary, USA Multifamily Management, manages its own projects in a portfolio consisting of over 10,600 units—two-thirds of it senior housing. Tax Credit Advisor sat down with Brown to discuss his passions and priorities.
Joel Swerdlow • 6 min read
Solar power is becoming more of an economic and technological possibility for developers of multiunit affordable housing—the cost of solar panels, for example, has been dropping exponentially since 2008.
Thom Amdur • 8 min read
In February, for the first time ever, NH&RA hosted a Public Housing Joint Venture Symposium in Key Largo, Florida where it convened HUD representatives with more than 100 developers, syndicators, lenders, and other members of the affordable housing community. The one-day event preceded the 2015 NH&RA Annual Meeting.
Marty Bell • 8 min read
To a group of American housing developers and financiers, four days in Havana is a tall mojito loaded with both spices and bitters. Make that a pitcher of mojitos, for walking the streets of a city frozen in the ‘50s surrounded by turquoise and lavender cars with protruding fins that your grandfather used to drive, you cannot help but feel a bit inebriated.
John W. Gahan III • 9 min read
The formation of tax credit financial partnerships to build affordable housing can be a joyous occasion. Both general and investor limited partners are optimistic. Regrettably, years later, the exit can be mayhem.
Joel Swerdlow • 7 min read
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have recently created new affordable housing products that provide borrowers with ways to access low-cost loans that finance affordable housing for the 15-plus years of the building’s compliance life.
Bendix Anderson • 5 min read
The rehabilitation of Cumberland Arms in Cumberland, Md., mixes housing, historic and energy tax credits. To get the maximum tax credit award, the developers committed to meet tough standards for energy efficiency. That meant creating significant energy cost savings even though energy costs are now low – a challenge that almost derailed the project.
Thomas Amdur • 3 min read
I find it inspiring that many of the communities developed by the first generation of NH&RA members in the 1960s are still prospering 50 years later. Indeed, many of these firms, and even a few of the founders, are still actively developing new or preserving existing affordable housing around the country today.
Mark Olshaker • 10 min read
Simply stated, it is an emphasis on wellness that, in many cases, can preempt an emphasis on sickness and infirmity. And it is paying off in measurable financial results for the facilities that have embraced the approach.
Bendix Anderson • 9 min read
Bodaken was born and raised in Storm Lake, Iowa, studied history at the University of Iowa and received his legal degree from Peoples College of Law in 1979. After 11 years as a Legal Aid lawyer specializing in housing, he was appointed Housing Coordinator-Deputy Mayor for the City of Los Angeles. Under this leadership, the City of Los Angeles dramatically increased its housing funding and created a Housing Department and Housing Commission.
Bendix Anderson • 6 min read
The Rayette Building in the Lowertown section of St. Paul, Minnesota has been a lot of things over the last 100 years, starting as a hat and clothing wholesaler in 1911. It became the Raymond Rayette Laboratories in 1936, where scientists developed products like Aqua Net, once the most popular hairspray in the U.S. In the mid-1990s, the building changed again into a giant, seven-story parking garage, with room for 300 cars.
Mark Olshaker • 7 min read
The result of this National Housing & Rehabilitation Association initiative, now in its second year, has been a program that encourages sustainable efficiency in affordable housing. But that is not how PTEE was sold. “We present utility efficiency as an economic imperative and a business opportunity,” states NH&RA Executive Director Thom Amdur. “How can we leverage energy efficiency to increase the residual value of a property, increase cash flow and decrease operating expenses? The word green doesn’t even show up in our literature; this is about dollars and cents.”