DEAL OF THE DAY: Harrison Tower Sold for $45M
By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorPortland, Ore.–JB Matteson Inc. in partnership with a large institutional investor recently acquired the Harrison Tower Apartments, a 24-story, 185-unit property in downtown Portland, Ore. for $45 million.Harrison Tower Apartments is one of three high-rise residential towers built in 1965. The original name of the three-building community was the Portland Center Apartments. In Sept. 2005, local developers acquired the property from Equity Residential with a plan to convert the entire property to condominiums on a per building basis in three phases. They renamed the property Harrison West, Harrison East and Harrison South. Harrison South became…
Philly Realtors Catwalk for Good Cause
By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorPhiladelphia–The Residences at Dockside recently teamed up with the Greater Philadelphia Association of Realtors to host a fashion show event to find “Philly’s Hottest Realtor,” as well as raise $12,000 for a non-profit organization, The Career Wardrobe. The organization serves thousands of women in transition throughout the greater Philadelphia region by providing free professional-looking clothing and educational opportunities.Eleven realtors from the Greater Philadelphia community took to the catwalk to compete for the crown with more than 200 colleagues, friends and family present at the event. Barbara Capozzi of Capozzi Real Estate was named Philly’s Hottest…
New Orleans Residents Want to Return to the City but not to Public Housing
By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorNew Orleans–A significant majority of public housing residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina do not want to return to public housing in New Orleans, says an independent survey commissioned by the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO). Conducted by the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), the survey involved more than 2,100 current and former public housing residents. Of these, 71.6 percent want to return to New Orleans, but only 35 percent preferred to return to public housing in New Orleans.When asked what form of housing they prefer, only 20.3 percent of respondents wanted to return…
PRG Acquires 15 Affordable Housing Buildings
By Anuradha Kher, Online News Editor New York–Phoenix Realty Group, a New York-based real estate fund manager, is acquiring and renovating 15 affordable housing buildings with 362 units, located in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, for $96 million.All the apartments will be preserved as affordable housing, and 95 percent of them will be subsidized with long-term Section 8 contracts from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).“These projects are very important within the community and have a huge impact on the neighborhood,” Ron Orgel, Phoenix Realty Group (PRG) managing director, tells MHN. “We believe that the preservation of affordable…
48-Unit Affordable Housing Community Opens In Santa Rosa
By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorSanta Rosa, Calif.–The Crossings at Santa Rosa, a 48-unit affordable apartment community developed by Urban Housing Communities LLC (UHC) and Heritage Community Housing Inc. (HCH), located in Northwest Santa Rosa, has opened this week.Situated off Cleveland Avenue, the $18 million community features a 1,190-sq.-ft three-bedroom floor plan and a 995-sq.-ft. two-bedroom floor plan. The community is close to schools, parks, employment, retail services and transportation.All Santa Rosa apartments are reserved for families earning 30 to 50 percent of the area median income for Sonoma County, as published by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.The…
Enterprise Will Now Provide FHA Multifamily, Healthcare Loans
By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorColumbia, Md.–Enterprise Community Investment Inc., an affordable housing finance and investment company, will now provide U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Section 538 Rural Development loans and will deliver Federal Housing Administration (FHA) multifamily and healthcare loan products as a HUD-approved Multifamily Accelerated Processing (MAP) lender.Enterprise will also provide proprietary non-agency construction and permanent financing for multifamily properties in addition to its Fannie Mae DUS products.“Enterprise is committed to offering the multifamily and commercial permanent debt products and services that developers need to support their work to revitalize and stabilize communities,” says Lamar Seats, senior vice…
Steven Holl to Design Three Mixed-Use Projects in China
By Anuradha Kher, Online New EditorShenzen, Bejing, Chengdu, CHINA–Steven Holl Architects, a New York-based firm, has been selected to design three mixed-use projects in China.The Linked Hybrid project in Beijing is scheduled to open in the late Spring/early Summer of 2008, the Vanke Center in Shenzhen is currently under construction and the Chengdu Project is scheduled to open in late 2010.The Linked Hybrid is a 700-unit apartment complex located adjacent to the old city wall of Beijing.Most of the development currently taking place in Beijing comprises independent towers. But the Linked Hybrid is a 2,368,060-sq.-ft “city within a city,” project,…
PropertyBridge Launches Sweepstakes Program
By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorOakland, Calif.–PropertyBridge Inc a provider of electronic payment services to the residential real estate management industry, is launching a national sweepstakes program to promote the use of electronic payments by renters in the U.S. The sweepstakes program includes offers for residents and management teams at residential housing communities that use the PropertyBridge Payments Platform.Residents will be eligible to win cash prizes of up to $20,000, awarded monthly through August 2008. In addition, community managers will soon be eligible to participate in a separate contest with prizes that include a weekend getaway for two in Las…
715-Unit Multifamily Development Receives $92.75M Loan
By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorAvondale, Ariz.–HFF (Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP) has arranged a construction loan and joint venture equity totaling $92.75 million for a 715-unit multifamily development in Avondale, Ariz.The project will be developed by Fore Property Co. and is expected to be completed by 2010. It will consist of two phases: Mirabella Village and Mirabella Gardens. The Mirabella Village will have 369 units including one-, two- and three-bedroom, and loft layouts ranging from 739-sq-.f.t. to 1,040-sq.-ft. Mirabella Gardens will have 346 units in the same floor plans as Mirabella Village plus 55 two- and three-story town home units…
Affordable Housing Project Gets Solar Electric System
By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorBoulder, Colo.–Boulder Housing Partners (BHP), the housing authority of the city of Boulder, in partnership with VisionSun Design, a design and project management consulting firm, has awarded a solar energy contract to Bella Energy to install 1.75 kilowatt solar electric systems at a 30-unit affordable housing project.The 52.5 kilowatt solar electric system will be installed at Diagonal Court Townhouses in North Boulder. Each of the units is individually metered by the local utility, Xcel Energy.The city of Boulder’s Housing Fund, the Colorado Governor Energy Office, and a pilot program for multi-unit solar electric systems from…