Five multifamily properties in San Antonio, Texas, will soon make the transition from de facto to officially designated affordable housing.
California’s Pico Union Housing secured a $43 million bridge loan through Ohio’s Rose Community Capital to refinance and find long-term funding for its Dolores Terravista property portfolio in San Antonio.
The portfolio consists of five apartment complexes with a total of 777 units. They were built in the 1970s and have been considered “naturally occurring affordable housing,” a term used for residential rental properties that are affordable compared with other rentals in their markets but are not subsidized by any government program.
Nonprofit company Pico Union Housing bought the portfolio in 2020 using a short-term bridge loan and was delayed in securing longer-term financing during the pandemic. Rose Community Capital will pay off the existing debt and assist with permanent financing.
The properties will be preserved through a use agreement restricting 51 percent of the units as affordable to residents making 80 percent of the area median income or less. The San Antonio-New Braunfels metro area median income was $74,100 for a family of four and $51,900 for a one-person household in 2021. The apartment complexes are in the Westside and Port San Antonio neighborhoods. They have one- to three-bedroom units, cabanas, swimming pools, fitness centers and onsite laundry facilities. Average monthly rent will range from $834 for a one-bedroom apartment to $1,156 for a three-bedroom townhome.
Los Angeles-based Pico Union Housing is a grassroots community developer that began expanding to parts of the country outside California in 2019. The group plans to renovate the San Antonio properties using HUD low-income housing tax credits and bonds and an FHA-insured 221(d)(4) substantial rehabilitation loan from Rose Community Capital. The property can revert back to market rate after 30 years, as required by the federal tax-credit program, in addition to any term required by the state.
Rose Community Capital is a Cleveland-based arm of community development company Jonathan Rose that specializes in the origination, underwriting and placement of FHA-insured multifamily mortgages.
The bridge loan was financed by investment manager Impact Community Capital through the Impact Mortgage Opportunities Fund, a multi-investor fund created to preserve affordable rental housing in the United States.