The organizations will team up again for the $6.8 million second phase of the project, which will eliminate and replace dozens of blighted homes with new units.
“This will provide affordable housing for working families, and it also it is part of our replacement strategy,” said Aaron Sorrell, Dayton’s director of planning and community development.
The Dayton YWCA at 141 W. Third St. also was awarded tax credits to renovate the building to provide better and more comfortable housing units.
The Ohio Housing Finance Agency announced in May that it had awarded about $28 million in annual federal housing tax credits to 46 development projects.
Tax credits help developers offset construction and improvement costs and last for a 10-year period, officials said. Investors receive the tax credits, and in return they invest in affordable housing. Developers apply for the use of these credits through the Ohio Housing Finance Agency in order to fund the actual development costs, officials said.
“A developer brings us a project, they win an award of tax credits and they either work with a direct investor, such as a bank like PNC, or they work with a syndicator, such as the Ohio Capital Corp. for Housing,” said Andrew Bailey, director of planning, preservation and development with the finance agency. “They sell the value of the 10-year tax credit to an investor, who then gives them equity to build the projects.”
In order to receive the credits, developers must maintain affordable rents and provide the housing units to residents with low- to moderate incomes for about 30 years.
The second phase of the Roosevelt Homes project was awarded an annual tax credit of $598,230 for 10 years, and the credits were vital in order to secure financing for development costs, said Wes Young, vice president and chief real estate officer for St. Mary Development Corp.
The single-family homes will be identical to the 43 homes built during the first phase of the project, which were the first new housing units in the Roosevelt area in more than 50 years, Young said. The homes are north of West Third Street, west of James H. McGee Boulevard.
Developers acquire and demolish about two abandoned and blighted homes to make room for every new unit.
The new homes will be offered as a leased product for the first 15 years, and after that, they can be sold. Construction on the housing development is expected to begin around January 2015.
The YWCA project that received about $920,334 in annual tax credits seeks to reduce the number of units in the building to 65 from 99, officials said.
“That building has significant mechanical issues, and this will be a complete gut rehab of the YWCA,” said Sorrell. “Ninety-nine units is too many for that building, and the units are too small, so these units will be a better atmosphere and environment for the tenants.”
Two local projects that requested tax credits did not receive awards.
One was to create a 40-unit apartment building near Brandt Pike and Needmore Road that could be marketed to employees of the Hollywood Gaming at Dayton Raceway.
The other project involved renovating 102 existing apartment units at Western Manor apartments off James H. McGee Boulevard. The project also planned to demolish the adjacent Harriet Tubman Apartments and the Project C.U.R.E. drug-treatment facility to replace them with a community center and a farmer’s market.
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