Broward County Commission Regular Meeting
Director's Name: Leonard Vialpando
Department: Resilient Environment Division: Housing Finance Division
Information
Requested Action
title
MOTION TO APPROVE gap financing for eight affordable housing projects and associated amounts as follows: 1) Sistrunk View, LLC, or its affiliate (Sistrunk View) at $7,500,000 (100 affordable units); 2) Pinnacle at Cypress, LLLP, or its affiliate (Pinnacle at Cypress) at $4,500,000 (100 affordable units); 3) Housing Trust Group, LLC, or its affiliate (Tamarac Terrace) at $4,410,000 (100 affordable units); 4) Vista at Springtree, Ltd., or its affiliate (Vista at Springtree) at $5,759,000 (96 affordable units); 5) Parcview Miramar, LLC, or its affiliate (ParcView at Miramar) at $2,000,000 (62 affordable units); 6) New Urban Sunset Strip, LLC, or its affiliate (Sunset Strip Square) at $1,305,000 (29 affordable units); 7) Habitat for Humanity of Broward, Inc., or its affiliate (BBI Village II) at $910,000 (26 affordable units); and 8) Wright Dynasty, LLC, or its affiliate (Wright Dynasty) at $300,000 (3 affordable units); authorizing the County Administrator to execute all agreements and related documents related to the listed gap financing projects, subject to the foregoing monetary limits and approval as to legal sufficiency by the Office of the County Attorney; and authorizing the County Administrator to take the necessary administrative and budgetary actions. (Commission Districts 3, 4, 7, 8 and 9)
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Why Action is Necessary
Board action is required to approve agreements with outside agencies and to create a new capital project above $25,000.
What Action Accomplishes
Allows the County Administrator to execute agreements for gap financing for eight affordable housing projects totaling $26,684,000 (516 affordable units).
Goal Related Icon(s)
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Previous Action Taken
None taken.
Summary Explanation/Background
THE RESILIENT ENVIRONMENT DEPARTMENT AND THE HOUSING FINANCE DIVISION RECOMMEND APPROVAL OF THE ABOVE MOTION.
This item supports the Board’s Value of “ensuring residents have an affordable place to live by offering sustainable, compatible, innovative, accessible, affordable housing options for all income levels, including integrated, permanent supportive housing and zoning that helps residents build equity."
On January 31, 2025, the Housing Finance Division issued a Request for Applications (“RFA”) in the amount of $25,000,000, soliciting affordable housing organizations to utilize gap financing for new construction or acquisition and/or rehabilitation of affordable multi-family housing units for rent or affordable homeownership units for sale, to be occupied by income-eligible individuals and/or families within Broward County. The RFA provided for two funding allocations:
1). For a project that includes a minimum of 70 multi-family affordable housing rental units (“Larger Project”), up to $20,000,000 total was available for the new construction or acquisition and/or rehabilitation of those units that will be affordable for households whose income is 80% or below the area median income (“AMI”). A maximum of $7,500,000 per Larger Project was available; and,
2). For a project that includes less than 70 multi-family affordable housing rental units or less than 70 affordable homeownership housing units for sale (“Smaller Project”), up to $5,000,000 total was available for the new construction of those units. Units to be rented must be affordable for households whose income is 80% or below the AMI and units to be sold must be affordable for households whose income is 120% or below the AMI. A maximum of $2,500,000 per Smaller Project was available.
The Applications were due by 12:00 p.m. (EST) on March 28, 2025; 14 Applications were submitted in a timely manner. Staff managing the RFA process reviewed all submitted Applications for minimum requirements and fatal flaw criteria and determined that 11 Applications were responsive and accepted for the RFA. The 11 Applications were provided to the Evaluation Committee for scoring and ranking (see Exhibit 1 for the list of all Applications accepted and the Evaluation Committee’s scoring/ranking and project summary).
The Evaluation Committee ranked the four Large Projects as follows: 1) Sistrunk View, 2) Pinnacle at Cypress, 3) Tamarac Terrace, and 4) Vista at Springtree. The total amount of gap financing requested for all the four Larger Projects is $22,169,000. A total of $20,000,000 in funding was allocated for the Larger Projects from the Broward County Affordable Housing Trust Fund (“AHTF”) for this RFA; however, there is an additional $2,169,000 in rollover funds from previous projects available in the AHTF to fund all the Larger Projects. Therefore, staff recommends the Board approve an award of gap financing for all four Larger Project Applications in the total amount of $22,169,000.
The Evaluation Committee ranked the seven Smaller Projects as follows: 1) ParcView at Miramar, 2) Sunset Strip Square, 3) BBI Village II, 4) Wright Dynasty, 5) 801 N.W. 6th Street, 6) H.O.M.E.S, Inc. Affordable Senior Housing New Construction Project, and 7) Crown Heights Gardens.
A total of $5,000,000 in funding was allocated for the Smaller Project funding allocation. There is sufficient funding in the AHTF to provide gap financing to the top four ranked Smaller Projects, and the total requested amount of $4,515,000, and leaves $485,000 remaining. The Applications that were ranked fifth through seventh requested gap financing in amounts which more than twice exceeds the remaining balance. The $485,000 in unallocated funds will be returned to the AHTF to be used for future affordable housing projects. Therefore, staff recommends the Board approve an award of gap financing in the total amount of $4,515,000 for the following Small Projects: ParcView at Miramar, Sunset Strip Square, BBI Village II, and Wright Dynasty.
The locations of all eight projects recommended for the award of gap financing are depicted in Exhibit 2.
After Board approval, a loan agreement and other related loan documents will be drafted for each affordable housing project to be executed by the County as a condition to the closing of financing for each project.
The terms of the loans for rental projects will include a minimum term of 50 years for the affordable housing land use restriction and a 0% interest rate loan with a term not to exceed 30 years, with the loan to become payable on the maturity date, or upon sale, change of title, or refinancing, whichever occurs first, subject to the terms of the loan agreement. It should be noted that Applicants for the following rental projects committed to keeping their projects affordable for a minimum of 99 years: Sistrunk View, Pinnacle at Cypress, Tamarac Terrace, Vista at Springtree and Wright Dynasty.
The terms of loans for projects with homeownership units for sale will include a minimum of 15 years for the affordable housing land use restriction, 0% interest for a loan maturity not to exceed four years ( the construction period), with the loan payable upon expiration of the loan term, or upon sale or refinancing, whichever is earlier, subject to the terms of the loan agreement. In addition, for eligible homebuyers purchasing a home within a project, the County will provide a subordinate mortgage loan, which terms will include a 15-year affordable housing land use restriction and a 0% interest rate loan with no principal amortization for a term of 15 years, which will be forgivable if the affordable housing land use restriction has been complied with. It should be noted that the Sunset Strip Square Smaller Application committed to an affordability period for a minimum of 99 years.
The Applicants all agreed that contractor and vendor awards to County Business Enterprises (CBE) are critical to the achievement of the County’s CBE participation objectives. Although the RFA does not have assigned CBE goals, the Applicants agreed that wherever possible, every effort will be made to utilize the services of Broward County certified CBE firms and they shall include this provision in any subcontract they enter into pursuant to the RFA.
The total impact of the projects generates the following: construction impact $167,700,000 and 1,161 construction jobs.
The four larger projects have all elected to use Housing Finance Authority (HFA) bonds, which will total $82,320,000. This funding is provided annually to the HFA through the Florida Division of Bond Finance.
Staff recommend fully funding the eight projects for a total of 516 affordable units from the AHTF for a total allocation of $26,684,000.
Source of Additional Information
Ralph Stone, Director, Housing Finance Division (954) 357-5320.
Fiscal Impact
Fiscal Impact/Cost Summary
The agenda item proposes utilizing $26,684,000 from the AHTF for new construction or acquisition and/or rehabilitation of affordable multi-family housing units for rent or affordable homeownership units for sale.