Hollywood approves land sale for affordable senior rentals

Hollywood city commissioners on Wednesday unanimously agreed to sell city land for $2.1 million to Pinnacle Housing Group for the development of 120 below-market rental apartments for low-income senior citizens.

Miami-based Pinnacle would charge $755 a month for one-bedroom, one-bathroom units and $908 for two-bedroom, two-bathroom units at a three-story, garden-style apartment complex.

Annual income below $30,480 is an eligibility requirement for one-person households. The threshold rises to $43,500 for four-person households.

The city agreed to sell an assemblage of city-owned parcels where Adams Street meets Dixie Highway for $2.1 million and to extend a $578,000 loan to Pinnacle to help finance the senior housing development.

The land is deed-restricted for affordable housing.

It is on the south side of Adams Street, just west of Dixie Highway, Timothy Wheat, regional vice president of Pinnacle, told The Real Deal. 

He said the planned 120-unit Hollywood development for independent, not assisted, living still faces a major financing hurdle.

City approval is “the first step. We’ll have to apply to Florida Housing Finance Corp. for the vast majority of the tax credits that will serve as equity financing,” Wheat said.

Pinnacle has tried before and failed to win an allocation of tax credits for the same city property, which Hollywood’s municipal government has owned since the 2004-2005 period. “We’ve been through it with this site a number of times,” he said.

Hollywood City Commissioner Linda Sherwood said Pinnacle’s chances are better now because of the pending $578,000 loan to the company, which is contingent upon a successful application to Florida Housing Finance Corp. for tax credits.

“It will make it easier to qualify for the tax credits,” Sherwood said.

City Commissioner Peter Hernandez noted that Pinnacle was not proposing a site plan, and at his request, Wheat publicly promised to keep the height of the senior housing development at three stories, below the five-story limit, and the number of parking spaces at 157, more than the 120 required.