Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney speaks at Wednesday’s event alongside RRHA CEO Steven Nesmith, left. (Jonathan Spiers photos)
A multimillion-dollar rehab underway in Blackwell is ensuring that a decades-old apartment complex in the Southside neighborhood remains as lower-income housing.
Mayor Levar Stoney last month joined officials with the Richmond Redevelopment & Housing Authority and development company Related Affordable to celebrate the conversion of the 161-unit Townes at River South from public housing to a project-based voucher program that preserves it as lower-income housing in perpetuity.
The event marked the start of an $11 million renovation that Related Affordable, part of New York-based Related Cos., is undertaking through the complex’s conversion to the Rental Assistance Demonstration program of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The RAD program allows housing authorities to convert public housing to a project-based voucher program, in which units are rented to Section 8 residents and rental income is transferred to a voucher that stays with a particular property.
The apartment complex fills several blocks primarily between Maury and Everett streets south of Commerce Road.
Townes at River South, which fills several blocks primarily between Maury and Everett streets south of Commerce Road, was built under HUD’s HOPE VI program through a nearly $27 million grant awarded to RRHA in 1997.
Funds from the grant also were used to demolish hundreds of public housing units that preceded Townes at River South and positioned dozens of properties in Blackwell for development as income-based housing – a yearslong effort that continues today.
A transaction that closed in late February completed the transition of Townes at River South from HOPE VI to the RAD program. Speakers at Wednesday’s event said the process had been four years in the making.
Related Affordable took a comparable approach with a 2016 commercial loan refinancing for two other Richmond properties – the 250-unit Ashley Oaks Apartments near Montrose Heights, and the 99-unit Newman Village Apartments off Chamberlayne Avenue – to remain as Section 8 housing properties.
Renovations to the units got underway in April.
For the Townes at River South deal, Related Affordable worked with Virginia Housing, Wells Fargo and Fannie Mae to secure financing for the rehab, which includes upgrades to the units’ kitchens, bathrooms and floors, as well as new paint. Work got underway about a month and a half ago and is scheduled to wrap up by the end of the year, Brian Samson of Related Affordable said.
Seventy-five of the units are Section 8 housing, while 86 are low-income housing tax credit units. Of the Section 8 units, 60 will be project-based rental assistance units and 15 will be project-based voucher units, according to RRHA.
At Wednesday’s event, Stoney was joined on the podium by David Pearson, an executive vice president with Related Affordable; Robert Davenport, director of HUD’s Richmond field office; and by RRHA CEO Steven Nesmith, who noted that the 75 Section 8 units will be made available to residents who qualify as extremely low-income, meaning households with incomes 30 percent or less of the area median income.
Nesmith said the preservation of Townes at River South contributes to Stoney’s goal of providing 1,000 new lower-income housing units per year, with the goal of 10,000 new units over a decade. Earlier this year, Stoney and member of the City Council declared a housing crisis in Richmond to try to drum up more action from stakeholders.
Nesmith addresses reporters after touring one of the units with Mayor Stoney and other officials.
“Anytime we have an opportunity to either create or preserve affordable housing, it’s a win for our communities,” Nesmith said. “As the City of Richmond is in a housing crisis, preserving affordable housing is just as important as producing affordable housing.”
Added Stoney: “We have a serious crisis on our hands. In the region at large, we have close to a 40,000-unit shortage. How did that happen? People are moving to Richmond.
“When that many people are flooding into the City of Richmond and into the region, we need more places for them to live,” Stoney said. “That’s why we are trying to build 10,000 units over the course of a decade. Building these units happens in many ways, one being preservation, which ensures that our current housing stock is up to date and truly affordable.”
MSI out of Roanoke is the general contractor on the rehab.
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney speaks at Wednesday’s event alongside RRHA CEO Steven Nesmith, left. (Jonathan Spiers photos)
A multimillion-dollar rehab underway in Blackwell is ensuring that a decades-old apartment complex in the Southside neighborhood remains as lower-income housing.
Mayor Levar Stoney last month joined officials with the Richmond Redevelopment & Housing Authority and development company Related Affordable to celebrate the conversion of the 161-unit Townes at River South from public housing to a project-based voucher program that preserves it as lower-income housing in perpetuity.
The event marked the start of an $11 million renovation that Related Affordable, part of New York-based Related Cos., is undertaking through the complex’s conversion to the Rental Assistance Demonstration program of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The RAD program allows housing authorities to convert public housing to a project-based voucher program, in which units are rented to Section 8 residents and rental income is transferred to a voucher that stays with a particular property.
The apartment complex fills several blocks primarily between Maury and Everett streets south of Commerce Road.
Townes at River South, which fills several blocks primarily between Maury and Everett streets south of Commerce Road, was built under HUD’s HOPE VI program through a nearly $27 million grant awarded to RRHA in 1997.
Funds from the grant also were used to demolish hundreds of public housing units that preceded Townes at River South and positioned dozens of properties in Blackwell for development as income-based housing – a yearslong effort that continues today.
A transaction that closed in late February completed the transition of Townes at River South from HOPE VI to the RAD program. Speakers at Wednesday’s event said the process had been four years in the making.
Related Affordable took a comparable approach with a 2016 commercial loan refinancing for two other Richmond properties – the 250-unit Ashley Oaks Apartments near Montrose Heights, and the 99-unit Newman Village Apartments off Chamberlayne Avenue – to remain as Section 8 housing properties.
Renovations to the units got underway in April.
For the Townes at River South deal, Related Affordable worked with Virginia Housing, Wells Fargo and Fannie Mae to secure financing for the rehab, which includes upgrades to the units’ kitchens, bathrooms and floors, as well as new paint. Work got underway about a month and a half ago and is scheduled to wrap up by the end of the year, Brian Samson of Related Affordable said.
Seventy-five of the units are Section 8 housing, while 86 are low-income housing tax credit units. Of the Section 8 units, 60 will be project-based rental assistance units and 15 will be project-based voucher units, according to RRHA.
At Wednesday’s event, Stoney was joined on the podium by David Pearson, an executive vice president with Related Affordable; Robert Davenport, director of HUD’s Richmond field office; and by RRHA CEO Steven Nesmith, who noted that the 75 Section 8 units will be made available to residents who qualify as extremely low-income, meaning households with incomes 30 percent or less of the area median income.
Nesmith said the preservation of Townes at River South contributes to Stoney’s goal of providing 1,000 new lower-income housing units per year, with the goal of 10,000 new units over a decade. Earlier this year, Stoney and member of the City Council declared a housing crisis in Richmond to try to drum up more action from stakeholders.
Nesmith addresses reporters after touring one of the units with Mayor Stoney and other officials.
“Anytime we have an opportunity to either create or preserve affordable housing, it’s a win for our communities,” Nesmith said. “As the City of Richmond is in a housing crisis, preserving affordable housing is just as important as producing affordable housing.”
Added Stoney: “We have a serious crisis on our hands. In the region at large, we have close to a 40,000-unit shortage. How did that happen? People are moving to Richmond.
“When that many people are flooding into the City of Richmond and into the region, we need more places for them to live,” Stoney said. “That’s why we are trying to build 10,000 units over the course of a decade. Building these units happens in many ways, one being preservation, which ensures that our current housing stock is up to date and truly affordable.”
MSI out of Roanoke is the general contractor on the rehab.
I think one has to be into the affordable housing business full-time to understand all these achronyms and federal program regulations. Nonetheless, as happy as the preservation of these few units for the cause of affordable housing makes me, the Mayor is still 30,000 units behind the curve in a losing battle. He cannot win. The rising costs of land, labor, materials and financing is pushing rents skyward. Developers are concentrating their efforts where they can project $2-2.50 psf rents. That’s the whole game for them now. Anything less has to be surface parked and walk up low rise. Yet… Read more »
Bruce Milam is right on target with his comments.