What Happens When Non-Profits Team Up

By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor

Hagerstown, Md.—Housing Partnership Equity Trust (HPET), Homes for America (HFA) and the National Housing Trust/Enterprise Preservation Corp. (NHT/Enterprise) have partnered to acquire The Bradford Apartments, a 418-unit property in Hagerstown, Md. The partners plan to preserve the apartment community, which is comprised of one-, two- and three-bedroom units, as affordable housing.

The Bradford is located near I-81 and I-70, providing access to both Baltimore and Washington, D.C. It’s adjacent to Pangborn Elementary School, a public golf course (Hagerstown Greens at Hamilton Run) and the Centre at Antietam, a shopping mall.

HFA will manage day-to-day operations for The Bradford, and take the lead on asset management decisions, including construction of a new community center on the property. HPET’s acquisition of The Bradford with HFA and NHT/Enterprise caps a year in which the company was able to triple the size of its portfolio to over 1,500 affordable units.

HPET is a social-purpose REIT created by the Housing Partnership Network and 12 nonprofit housing developers, including HFA and NHT/Enterprise, to preserve affordable rental properties. HPET launched in 2013 with investment from Prudential Financial, Citi, Morgan Stanley, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, its nonprofit members, and HPN, a business collaborative
of affordable housing and community development nonprofits that sponsors the REIT.

NHT/Enterprise, launched in 1999, is a partnership formed by the National Housing Trust and Enterprise Community Partners Inc. to buy and renovate affordable apartments that are deteriorating or at risk of being converted to market-rate units. Thus far, NHT/Enterprise has preserved 5,400 affordable units.