HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – Construction is underway at Heritage Senior Residences, a new senior living community that will be rising in the Washington Avenue corridor – the hottest apartment market in Houston.
The 135-unit mixed-income housing development Is being developed by the Houston Housing and Community Development Department and an affiliate of Atlantic Pacific Communities, a large Florida-based multifamily firm with 40,000 units under management.
Heritage Senior Residences is being built with some federal financing through. The development was awarded $14.35 million in Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds.
Those funds are a federal response to Hurricane Harvey, the storm that dumped 50 inches of rain on south Texas in August 2017. Harvey destroyed thousands of Houston homes, apartments, businesses, schools and houses of worship.
The new Heritage Senior Residences is designed to deliver a degree of recovery to seniors citizens in Houston, which is still scarred from the storm.
“Heritage Senior Residences is an important addition to this area of our District, which hasn’t seen a similar project in decades. Housing prices and rents continue to rise in Houston, making it harder for our seniors to live in high quality, affordable housing. Atlantic Pacific has been a terrific partner in tackling this issue, bringing a better quality of life not only to our seniors, but the surrounding neighborhoods,” said City of Houston Council Member Abbie Kamin of District C.
Houston Home Prices Hit Record Highs
Home prices in Houston hit a record high in May. The average single-family home price last month was $387,105, up 30 percent from a year ago, according to the Houston Association of Realtors.
Multifamily rents were soft during the pandemic, but this spring rents have skyrocketed in Houston. Apartment occupancy in April and May increased with unprecedented strength.
The Heritage Senior Residences, 1120 Moy Street, will be located about a block north of Washington Avenue and about 10 blocks east of the Westcott traffic circle.
A number of new multifamily projects have been completed in the area recently and more are under construction. In fact, the Heights/Washington Avenue area ranks No. 1 in the Houston area for absorption of apartments, according to a recent report from ApartmentData.com.
More Facts About the Neighborhood
According to the Census Bureau, 64 percent of senior households in the 77007 zip code around the Heritage Senior Residences, are considered rent burdened (i.e. pay more than 30% of their income on housing costs).
Heritage Senior Residences is expected to be completed in late 2022. The mixed-income residential development will consist of 30% market rate and 70% affordable apartment homes. Market rental prices will range from $1,304 (one-bedroom) to $1,624 (two-bedroom) while affordable rental prices will range from $445 to $1,189 for one-bedroom units and $534 to $1,426 for two-bedroom units.
“Heritage Senior Residences is a prime example of how successful public private partnerships enhance communities and improve lives,” said Dan Wilson, Senior Vice President at AP Communities. “We are honored to work hand in hand with the City of Houston to bring a valuable new asset to the Washington corridor that provides local seniors a high-quality home with a wide array of amenities in the neighborhood they love at a price they can comfortably afford.”
“Heritage Senior Residences will help ensure that seniors in the Memorial and Rice Military area can remain in a community that is near services and still affordable,” said Ray Miller, Assistant Director of Multifamily at the Houston Housing and Community Development Department. “For many seniors, it becomes difficult after retirement to find adequate homes in the communities they have been rooted in all their lives — especially for working-class and middle-class seniors.”
The Financial Stack
The City of Houston’s $14.35 million CDBG-DR funds were paired with $13,796,806 of equity generated from the sale of housing tax credits, a $20,500,000 construction loan from Bank of America, and a $9,800,000 permanent loan from Citi Community Capital.
“We continue to realize the effects of Hurricane Harvey on housing, and we understand that, for older adults especially, access to consistent housing is a public health concern. Addressing housing insecurity in our older population means providing mental and physical stability as well as the ability to age in place,” said Hong Ogle, President at Bank of America Houston. “Our partnership with Heritage Senior Residences enforces the conscious effort Bank of America has made to invest in opportunities to help mitigate housing insecurity in our community.”
June 22, 2021 Realty News Report Copyright 2021
For more about Texas real estate, check out the book Houston 2020: America’s Boom Town – An Extreme Close Up by Ralph Bivins. Available on Amazon http://tiny.cc/4a2g6y
Houston 2020 Ebook version https://tinyurl.com/4xm7z8b5
Image: Rendering Courtesy AP Communities
File: Houston’s Hottest Apartment Submarket
File (2) Community Development Block Grant. Houston’s Hottest Apartment Submarket. Atlantic Pacific. HUD. HAR. Hong Ogle.