A site plan oriented with north pointing to the right shows the two apartment buildings in relation to the townhome rows and community center building. (Images courtesy Better Housing Coalition)
An income-based housing development in the works in eastern Henrico County appears slated to receive a federal funding boost.
U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark R. Warner recently announced proposed funding awards for various projects in Virginia, including $2 million to help Better Housing Coalition develop 106 income-based apartments as part of a $41 million complex it’s planning near the county’s Eastern Government Center.
The development, planned for a 10-acre wooded parcel off Dabbs House Road just east of the government center, also would include 25 for-sale townhomes and a community center. The Better Housing Coalition owns the land and secured zoning for the project in 2021.
The complex would add to what BHC started a decade ago when it developed the adjacent Carter Woods senior apartments. The 10 acres had been planned as a third phase of Carter Woods that never materialized.
The existing Carter Woods senior apartments were developed a decade ago.
Initially planned for 112 apartments and 28 townhomes, the development has been trimmed in size but increased in projected cost, up from $36 million two years ago.
Stacie Birchett, BHC’s vice president of external affairs, attributed the $5 million jump to increases in materials and labor costs. She said the rest of the project cost would be covered using a combination of tax credit equity, debt and public and private grants. She said BHC received a 9 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credit award for the project this spring.
Stacie Birchett
“To keep rents affordable, we like to keep debt to around no more than 25 percent, so it takes awhile to assemble the capital stack,” Birchett said in an email. “As we’ve all seen building materials and labor costs going through the roof the past few years, it just takes longer to complete the stack.”
As financing is finalized, Birchett said the housing nonprofit is continuing site, design and zoning work, and will issue a request for proposals from general contractors later in the process. She said a request for qualifications for GCs is expected to go out by the end of this year, and, if the process goes well, construction could start in early 2025.
To be developed in two phases, the complex would be anchored by a pair of three-story buildings that would house the one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. Four rows of two-story townhomes would enclose a central green, and the rest of the site would include the 6,000-square-foot community center, a 2,000-square-foot maintenance building and 258 parking spaces.
The apartments are targeted for renters earning 40 to 60 percent of the area median income (AMI) – roughly $22,400 a year for a single renter and nearly $64,000 for a four-person household. Monthly rents are anticipated to range from about $730 for a one-bedroom unit to $1,400 for a three-bedroom unit.
Birchett said a price mix for the townhomes is still being worked out. When the project went through the rezoning process two years ago, the three-bedroom townhomes were planned to range from 1,700 to 2,100 square feet and to be targeted to buyers in the 80 to 120 percent AMI range.
“Based on the low vacancy rates and waiting lists for tax credit properties in this area, we expect to fill it quickly once completed,” Birchett said. Build-out is expected to take 18 months.
Moseley Architects is designing the project and Timmons Group is handling engineering work.
The funding award was one of several announced in mid-August as part of the U.S. Senate’s draft government spending legislation for the 2024 fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. The draft bills were passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee on a bipartisan basis, according to the announcement from Kaine and Warner’s offices.
A final deal on the federal budget would follow negotiations with the House of Representatives.
Other Senate awards in the Richmond area include $4 million for the U.S. Army Reserve for planning and design of training and storage buildings for a 200-member Army Reserve Center in the city, and $1.7 million for a new intersection and pedestrian safety improvements where Hopkins Road and Harwood Street connect with Richmond Highway.
Also allotted was $750,000 for the City of Richmond to reestablish and improve a natural buffer along the banks of the James River and to reroute the Virginia Capital Trail to prevent runoff and improve water quality. The rerouting is being coordinated with the James River Association’s education center, under construction at 3021 Dock St.
Meanwhile, BHC is putting the finishing touches on a development in Richmond’s Jackson Ward neighborhood. Its 67-unit The Planet Apartments at 107 W. Duval St. is preleasing, with rents ranging from about $840 to $1,400 a month.
Correction: Moseley Architects is designing the Carter Woods III project. An earlier version of this story named a different architecture firm based on info provided by Better Housing Coalition that was incorrect.
A site plan oriented with north pointing to the right shows the two apartment buildings in relation to the townhome rows and community center building. (Images courtesy Better Housing Coalition)
An income-based housing development in the works in eastern Henrico County appears slated to receive a federal funding boost.
U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark R. Warner recently announced proposed funding awards for various projects in Virginia, including $2 million to help Better Housing Coalition develop 106 income-based apartments as part of a $41 million complex it’s planning near the county’s Eastern Government Center.
The development, planned for a 10-acre wooded parcel off Dabbs House Road just east of the government center, also would include 25 for-sale townhomes and a community center. The Better Housing Coalition owns the land and secured zoning for the project in 2021.
The complex would add to what BHC started a decade ago when it developed the adjacent Carter Woods senior apartments. The 10 acres had been planned as a third phase of Carter Woods that never materialized.
The existing Carter Woods senior apartments were developed a decade ago.
Initially planned for 112 apartments and 28 townhomes, the development has been trimmed in size but increased in projected cost, up from $36 million two years ago.
Stacie Birchett, BHC’s vice president of external affairs, attributed the $5 million jump to increases in materials and labor costs. She said the rest of the project cost would be covered using a combination of tax credit equity, debt and public and private grants. She said BHC received a 9 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credit award for the project this spring.
Stacie Birchett
“To keep rents affordable, we like to keep debt to around no more than 25 percent, so it takes awhile to assemble the capital stack,” Birchett said in an email. “As we’ve all seen building materials and labor costs going through the roof the past few years, it just takes longer to complete the stack.”
As financing is finalized, Birchett said the housing nonprofit is continuing site, design and zoning work, and will issue a request for proposals from general contractors later in the process. She said a request for qualifications for GCs is expected to go out by the end of this year, and, if the process goes well, construction could start in early 2025.
To be developed in two phases, the complex would be anchored by a pair of three-story buildings that would house the one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. Four rows of two-story townhomes would enclose a central green, and the rest of the site would include the 6,000-square-foot community center, a 2,000-square-foot maintenance building and 258 parking spaces.
The apartments are targeted for renters earning 40 to 60 percent of the area median income (AMI) – roughly $22,400 a year for a single renter and nearly $64,000 for a four-person household. Monthly rents are anticipated to range from about $730 for a one-bedroom unit to $1,400 for a three-bedroom unit.
Birchett said a price mix for the townhomes is still being worked out. When the project went through the rezoning process two years ago, the three-bedroom townhomes were planned to range from 1,700 to 2,100 square feet and to be targeted to buyers in the 80 to 120 percent AMI range.
“Based on the low vacancy rates and waiting lists for tax credit properties in this area, we expect to fill it quickly once completed,” Birchett said. Build-out is expected to take 18 months.
Moseley Architects is designing the project and Timmons Group is handling engineering work.
The funding award was one of several announced in mid-August as part of the U.S. Senate’s draft government spending legislation for the 2024 fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. The draft bills were passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee on a bipartisan basis, according to the announcement from Kaine and Warner’s offices.
A final deal on the federal budget would follow negotiations with the House of Representatives.
Other Senate awards in the Richmond area include $4 million for the U.S. Army Reserve for planning and design of training and storage buildings for a 200-member Army Reserve Center in the city, and $1.7 million for a new intersection and pedestrian safety improvements where Hopkins Road and Harwood Street connect with Richmond Highway.
Also allotted was $750,000 for the City of Richmond to reestablish and improve a natural buffer along the banks of the James River and to reroute the Virginia Capital Trail to prevent runoff and improve water quality. The rerouting is being coordinated with the James River Association’s education center, under construction at 3021 Dock St.
Meanwhile, BHC is putting the finishing touches on a development in Richmond’s Jackson Ward neighborhood. Its 67-unit The Planet Apartments at 107 W. Duval St. is preleasing, with rents ranging from about $840 to $1,400 a month.
Correction: Moseley Architects is designing the Carter Woods III project. An earlier version of this story named a different architecture firm based on info provided by Better Housing Coalition that was incorrect.
This is one of the reasons why the Federal Debt is so high – earmarks – we have 49 other states paying for something in Henrico.
I’m glad they are spending the money on a problerm at home vs trying to prop up some counties or go after some causes no one can really find on a map or even knows exists.
Im glad to see the city progressing with better designs but Richmond’s suburbia is still building one off little developments off of stroads that will only make traffic worse. Start building real suburban communities, not this crap.
American planners still don’t know what makes places liveable and not depressing.
Good luck plopping this housing project in the middle of Wyndham.