WNC Raises $176M for Institutional LIHTC Fund

Rendering of the Des Moines, Iowa project. Image courtesy of WNC

WNC has closed on $176 million in institutional low-income housing tax credit equity that will be used to develop and renovate more than 2,160 affordable housing units in 16 states.

The equity was raised through the WNC Institutional Tax Credit Fund 50 LP (WNC Fund 50), which opened in January 2021 and has garnered nine investors.

The funds will be used to develop 32 affordable housing communities in California, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.

A portion of these units will also be reserved for special needs tenants, including those with physical or mental disabilities, at-risk or formerly homeless people, people recovering from chemical dependency, veterans, single parents and frail seniors.

Christine Cormier, WNC’s executive vice president of investor relations, told Multi-Housing News that the timing of the capital deployment is based on meeting certain benchmarks as detailed by a partnership agreement that governs all the properties.

Cormier also told MHN that there are set deadlines to complete construction on the communities that come with the tax credit allocations.

So far, the projects in WNC’s fund includes a 96-unit affordable housing project reserved for seniors that are 55 years or older in Bozeman, Mont. The senior housing community will also feature an on-site healthcare facility that’s been pre-leased to Community Health Partners, a local non-profit organization.

Other projects in the fund include a high school that’s being retrofitted into a 41-unit affordable housing community in Plattsmouth, Neb., and a 43-unit new construction project in Des Moines, Iowa. The fund will also see WNC work with six new development partners.

GROWING DEMAND FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING FUNDS

Cormier said in prepared remarks that WHC Fund 50 is the firm’s largest institutional LIHTC fund to date. WNC previously closed on its Institutional Tax Credit Fund 48 at $129 million raised in April 2020 and later raised $153 million through its Institutional Tax Credit Fund 49 in August 2020.

“Demand for tax credit affordable housing funds has always been strong given they offer higher yields at lower risks than alternative investments for economic buyers as well as meeting the CRA needs for bank investors,” Cormier told MHN. 

With its WNC Fund 50, WNC has raised approximately $5.9 billion of equity since the firm’s inception. The funds have been used to develop and renovate more than 96,000 affordable housing units across the U.S. and has contributed to WNC’s portfolio of approximately $13 billion in assets in 47 states, Washington, D.C and the U.S. Virgin Islands.