Freddie Provides $73.9M in Bond Credit Enhancements to Preserve Linden Plaza

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorMcLean, Va.–Freddie Mac provided $73.9 million in bond credit enhancements to The DeMatteis Organization, as part of a credit facility with Wachovia Multifamily Capital and Red Stone Partners. The DeMatteis Organization will use the funds to help preserve Linden Plaza, a 1,527-unit affordable housing complex in Brooklyn, New York, which has historically had a very low vacancy rate. Red Stone Partners provided the first-loss mezzanine credit enhancement for the credit facility and arranged for the direct placement of $35 million in tax credit equity with a single investor. “The rehab will address deferred maintenance and capital needs that reflect the age of the property,” W. Kimball Griffith, MF vice president of Affordable Housing, tells MHN.  This, he says will include replacement of the elevated concrete plaza deck, replacement of all windows, roofs and storefronts; elevator upgrades; upgrades to apartment kitchens, bathrooms and flooring; boiler refurbishments, installation of new co-generation equipment; electrical sub-metering for all apartments; mechanical, electrical and ventilation systems upgrades and more. Common areas will be upgraded with new lighting, emergency lighting and smoke detection equipment and tile flooring.  Exterior common areas will receive new lighting, a new card access entry system and new playground equipment.  All this will be completed in the next 12 to 24 months.The borrower utilized the Freddie Mac Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Moderate Rehabilitation 4 percent Tax Credit Tax-Exempt Bond execution.”We are very pleased to complete this transaction with Wachovia Multifamily Capital and Red Stone Partners,” says Kim Griffith, Freddie Mac vice president of affordable sales and investments. “Linden Plaza is a great preservation deal, which is helping to revitalize the community. We worked with various public and private entities on this complex deal.”Daniel Cunningham, Wachovia’s head of affordable housing, adds,  “We needed an efficient and elegant solution to a complex set of challenges.”The Linden Plaza was developed in 1971 on an elevated concrete deck over the city’s Metropolitan Transit Authority Pitkin Subway yard. It features five 17-story and 18-story towers, six townhouse complexes and four parking facilities.Ray Savino, chief financial officer for Development at the DeMatteis Organization, says, “We knew Freddie Mac would understand the challenges to Linden’s financing plan and focus immediately on finding solutions. Freddie Mac made important contributions to a demanding process that resulted in financing for the revitalization of this important affordable housing resource.”