Greystone lands $130M to rehab older Florida rentals

Hallmark Companies' McPine Apartments in Arcadia (Source: Google)
Hallmark Companies' McPine Apartments in Arcadia (Source: Google)

The affordable housing arm of Manhattan-based Greystone assembled $130 million of financing to rehabilitate 24 apartment properties in rural Florida, mostly in the central and northern regions of the state.

A provider of recapitalization and rehabilitation services to owners of affordable housing, Greystone Affordable Housing Initiatives LLC assembled the $130 million financing package on behalf of Atlanta-based Hallmark Companies, the owner of the 1,058-unit portfolio of Florida apartments.

The biggest component of the financing is proceeds from a $41.6 million tax-exempt bond issue by Osceola County, one of 12 Florida counties where Hallmark owns apartment buildings catering to low-income tenants.

The financing will enable Hallmark to invest an average of $32,000 per unit in both interior and exterior upgrades at the 24 apartment properties, which were built between 1975 and 1995. The rehab project is expected to conclude within 12 months without forcing any tenants to relocate.

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Rocky Owen, chairman of the Osceola County Housing Finance Authority (OCHFA), said in a prepared statement that OCHFA worked with Greystone and Hallmark “to aggregate 24 small multifamily properties located around the state … into a single statewide portfolio. … Each alone could not have been affordably rehabilitated.”

In addition to the county bond issue, other components of the financing include $28.1 million in capital contributions from the purchase of 4 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credits by Boston Financial and $12.5 million of loans guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from Greystone Servicing Corporation, plus $17.3 million of newly issued Soft Second USDA loans.

Greystone also assumed and subordinated $26.7 million of loans made through the USDA Section 515 program, which provides subsidized loans to developers of affordable housing in rural locations.

Tenants residing in about 60 percent of the 1,058 apartments will continue to receive Section 521 Rental Assistance provided by USDA’s Rural Housing Service.