Mark Fogarty Author Archives

It’s rare that a site for a housing development is perfect. Besides the constraints of working with existing lots that are often less than ideal, there are many other factors in play: zoning, soil conditions, solar orientation, ease of entry and access to transportation and amenities, just to name a few. In general, though, there are a few handy tips that can help developers and architects seek out a good site for affordable housing.

The historic rehab of the YWCA Central Massachusetts will not only improve its traditionally extensive array of services for women and their children, but it is being built by a woman-led construction management team as well.

The state of Vermont is on track to see its first New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) deal that will finance homeownership-only units. And that first project, planned to be developed by a local community land trust, will target an unusual and specialized population: refugees who have been resettled into the state’s largest city, Burlington.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has hit senior housing so recently that post-COVID design has yet to fully materialize, what seems likely is that new congregate living projects will be more compartmentalized to cordon off seniors and their families and visitors in the public and semi-public areas of their residences.

Hopeton Terrace in Chillicothe, OH, the first senior housing project to benefit from a RAD for PRAC rehab deal, may soon have a lot of company. According to officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD has seven more such deals currently being underwritten and has received a total of 180 applications to take part in the new program.

The Pittsburgh Athletic Association building, more than a century old, has been called a structure with good bones, gracious and elegant. Presidents have spoken there. Stately weddings have been held within. There was a two-story swimming pool on its third floor. Now, after years of deterioration, Historic Tax Credits (HTC) are being used to bring it back to its old grandeur.

The Merchants National Bank building in Mobile, AL, has experienced many obstacles since its opening in 1929. For example, the 1929 market crash occurred within weeks of opening, it is currently relaunching through the extensive disruption of a pandemic and has weathered dozens of hurricanes in its nearly 100 years of existence. The $45 million rehab is trying to ensure this historic building and the buildings that surround it can endure for another century.

Apparently God, at least, doesn’t mind having low-income neighbors. That’s the implication of a new initiative called YIGBY (Yes in God’s Back Yard), which is using church land to build affordable housing while getting around the usual litanies of NIMBY objections.

Mixed-use housing is poised for a huge expansion in the post-COVID era, as at-risk populations, especially seniors, are going to want more goods and services available to them under one, health-secure roof.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created some thorny property insurance problems for owners/managers: Increased premiums. Lawsuits backed by deep pockets. The need to factor force majeure into costs. A spike in multifamily severity claims.

A recently published examination of how to beat the affordable housing squeeze presented by rising demand and falling production reveals how developers think they can maximize production through creative approaches to cutting costs.

Affordable assisted living can be a triple winner if it is done right using Medicaid waivers, according to a developer that has an active portfolio of properties in Indiana.