Beyond the Comfort Zone: Baltimore Developer Partners With County to Create Unusual Project
By Caitlin Jones
1 min read
Tax Credit Advisor, March 2011: “Partnerships are hard, says Jeffrey Hettleman, principal and executive vice president of Baltimore-based Shelter Development, LLC. “Public-private partnerships are hard.” But, he quickly adds, they can be richly rewarding, such as in the case of Monarch Mills.
This $43 million, 269-unit mixed-income, intergenerational rental community is rising from the ground in Howard County, Maryland, halfway between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The 18-acre site is in Columbia, one of the earliest planned communities in the U.S. with a diverse population of nearly 100,000 residents.
Shelter, which develops, owns, and manages affordable and mixed-income apartment communities and market-rate senior living communities, is the fee developer and property manager for Monarch Mills. Its partner in the deal is the Howard County Housing Commission, a part of county government and the general partner for the project. The county selected Shelter in the spring of 2008 after a rigorous RFP process in which it laid out — and has continually adhered to – a clear vision of what it wants and is determined to get.
