Vitus Group Plans Renovation on Six Affordable Communities

Vitus Group, an affordable housing development company, announced that it plans to renovate six apartment communities across four counties in Washington.

By Jessica Fiur, News Editor

Seattle—Vitus Group, an affordable housing development company, announced that it plans to renovate six apartment communities across four counties in Washington. These communities were acquired in a single transaction and include affordable units on all of the properties.

The properties include: Chelsea Apartments in Oak Harbor, Newport Apartments in Oak Harbor, Woodgate Apartments in Burlington, Wishing Well II Apartments in Marysville, Wellington Apartments in Marysville and Harmony House Apartments in Shelton.

“We brought six properties in different counties together in one transaction with the assistance of Washington State Housing Finance Commission and USDA Rural Development, [and] we got separate loans, one for each site,” David Beacham, director, Vitus Group, tells MHN. “It was a heavy lift in that regard and a very complex transaction to bring all the parties together.”

Beacham explains that the decision to acquire all six properties as one transaction was made to keep costs down.

“Rural development properties by themselves are very difficult to keep affordable, because they’re typically small,” he says. “If you can, really bring some mass to it. For example, here we had six existing sites with a total of 194 units, each on average with about 30. If you think about the ability to do a transaction as a one-off, it could work, but bringing them together as one transaction limits the cost and really makes economic sense.”

Vitus Group plans to make improvements to all the communities, including roof replacements, new windows and retrofits in line with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Interior renovations will include plumbing fixtures, kitchen repairs and new appliances.

“Most of these projects were built in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, so they’re being renovated to the current standard with interiors and exteriors, as well as accessibility improvements on all the sites,” Beacham says. “The key is keeping them affordable.”