Financing Secured for Life’s Garden

Posted by beacon on Fri, Sep 23, 2016 at 3:42 PM

California, Occupied Rehabs, Senior Housing

With financing secured, construction kicks off at Beacon Development Group’s largest project to date.

Beacon Development Group (as a subsidiary of Beacon Communities Inc.) is making large advances in California and none is more visible than the recent work being done in the City of Sunnyvale at the Life’s Gardens Community. Starting in early September, the 204-unit community will undergo an extensive renovation that will improve the quality of housing for residents, allowing them to live independently longer. Additionally, the redevelopment will preserve and extend the HAP, ensuring the property’s affordability for decades to come.

On August 30, the project completed the last piece of financing by successfully closing on the $75 million tax credit partnership. This represents Beacon’s largest single development, and the first Low Income Housing Tax Credit financing that Beacon Development has done in California. We are excited about creating a new partnership with Merritt Capital and CitiBank. More importantly we are excited that the mission of serving and providing affordable housing to all populations in need continues as a core Beacon value.

In speaking on the financial closing, Development Director Cindy Proctor said “I cannot begin to convey the amazing expertise of our staff as we navigated the new financing programs and the heavily regulated energy, construction and building process in California.” We have also forged new relationships on the design and development side which includes Branagh Construction and HKIT Architects. The Community is a BCI owned and managed community in partnership with Sunnyvale Life Inc.

The redevelopment of Life’s Gardens is anticipated to be completed by October 2018. The redevelopment process will be divided into (8) phases to minimize disruption to residents. A kick-off meeting was held on August 10^th with the residents and design development team; construction will start September 6, 2016.

Residents at the August 10th kick-off meeting

Beacon’s George Sousou and J.P. Stocco present

Beacon Welcomes New Staff Members!

Posted by beacon on Tue, Sep 13, 2016 at 5:02 PM

Beacon

This summer, Beacon Development group is excited to welcome Beth Boram, Ellen Lohe, Kion Sawney, and Marguerite Carlson to the team.

Beth Boram, a Seattle native, joined the Washington office this past June and is the newest Senior Housing Developer. With experience working as the Property Development Director for Compass Housing Alliance and as a planner for King County, she comes to us with over 15 years in the housing development industry. She has a particular expertise in housing for special populations, including service-supported housing for individuals and families experiencing homelessness. Using this background, Beth guides clients and manages projects in every phase of development.

Ellen Lohe came on board to the Washington office this July as the new Development Associate after completing her Master’s in City Planning from MIT this past spring. Building off of her experiences working as an urban designer for Arup and at the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the New York City Department of City Planning, Ellen has been providing comprehensive support to both housing developers and construction managers on funding applications, client reports, and closings.

Kion Sawney joined the California office this August. As a Housing Developer he will oversee the entire life-cycle of a project, from funding to close-out. He comes to us from Nashville, where he worked as a Research Fellow for the Civic Design Center and as a Development Associate at Urban Housing Solutions, the city’s largest non-profit developer in the creation of affordable units. Kion received a B.S. in Economics and Urban Planning from Vanderbilt in 2014.

Marguerite Carlson is the most recent addition to the team, joining the Washington office in September as a Senior Housing Developer. Marguerite has over 13 years of experience at the Seattle Housing Authority, where she most recently worked on several phases of the Yesler Terrace Redevelopment. During her time at the SHA, Marguerite also handled funding applications, due diligence, and coordination on 13 mixed-finance closings for over 2,500 units of affordable housing with a total project value of $450 million.

Each new staff member brings unique perspective and a wealth of experience to the organization. Beacon Development Group looks forward to the impact that Beth, Ellen, Kion, and Marguerite will make.

Campaigning for Seattle’s 2016 Housing Levy

Posted by beacon on Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 11:24 AM

Advocacy, Beacon, Washington

Senior Housing Developer, Beth Boram

Over the course of July, Beacon Development Group’s Seattle office will be hosting and participating in two phone banks for the city’s 2016 Housing Levy. The property tax, first approved off the ballot in 1981, will be up for renewal for the sixth time in August. The proposed $290 million levy will be dedicated to producing affordable housing options and providing support to low-income families, seniors, individuals with disabilities, and low-wage workers within Seattle.

After expanding upon its predecessor and leveraging every city dollar with $3 dollars from other sources, the 2009 Housing Levy outperformed expectations, exceeding the goal of producing 1,670 affordable housing units by roughly 30% and providing emergency rent assistance to 2,442 families.

President, Paul Purcell

Development Director, Brian Lloyd

This time around, the mayor is proposing to expand the levy once more. The levy can be broken down into four main programs:

Rental Production & Preservation – $201 million, which would oversee the development and rehabilitation of 2,500 apartments with affordable rents secured for at least 50 years
Operating & Maintenance – $42 million, which would provide subsidies for 510 units that serve extremely low-income individuals
Homelessness Prevention – $11.5 million, which would supply rent assistance and stabilization services to 4,500 households
Homeownership – $9.5 million, which would assist a total of 280 households with loans for home repairs and first-time home purchases

Each program would prioritize individuals making below 30% AMI, but would stretch to support those making up to 60% AMI.

The 2016 tax would cost just $122 annually for owners of median value homes. While the levy is focused on housing and homelessness prevention, the effect of taxpayer dollars would extend far beyond this. The Housing Levy would produce thousands of jobs in construction and management, increase the city’s energy and water efficiency with green building standard projects, and most importantly, foster inclusive, equitable communities throughout Seattle. Beacon Development Group is proud to be a part of the effort to renew the Seattle Housing Levy.

Planning Entitlements Approved for Rotary Miller Avenue

Posted by beacon on Mon, Jun 20, 2016 at 12:19 PM

California, Construction, Senior Housing

View of the south facade, along Miller Avenue.

In April, the South San Francisco City Council approved the planning entitlements and finalized the land purchase agreement (land donation) for a new senior housing project on Miller Avenue in the City’s downtown. The project is a five story residential building with 81 units restricted to low and very low income senior households. The ground floor features 1,993 square-feet of community assembly space and contains outdoor courtyards including a roof terrace for the residents. Construction is expected to commence in January 2017 with completion in March of 2018.

Pike Place Market Closes Housing Financing

Posted by beacon on Tue, Mar 8, 2016 at 6:14 PM

Senior Housing, Sustainable Buildings, Urban/Mixed Use, Washington

Overhead view of the MarketFront site in construction with slab on grade nearly complete

Last month the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority (PPMPDA) successfully closed its financing for the $9.6 million Western Avenue Senior Housing, the residential component of their ongoing $73 million MarketFront development project. As development consultant on Western Avenue Senior Housing, Beacon Development Group assisted the PPMPDA in assembling and closing the complex financing from U.S. Bank Community Development Corporation, the City of Seattle, the Washington State Housing Finance Commission and King County. The Miller Hull Partnership designed the project.

Meanwhile, Sellen Construction poured the final slab on grade for the MarketFront project in mid-February. Reaching this construction milestone was significant because it triggers the construction of the elevated decks of the garage structure, atop which the 40-unit residential structure will eventually be built to house low-income seniors.

Now with financing in place, construction on the housing can begin in May, with completion scheduled for December 2016. The 40 apartments will be available to seniors making up to 30% and 50% of area median income, with seven of the units designed to accommodate low-income senior artists and vendors.

King County One Night Count

Posted by beacon on Tue, Feb 2, 2016 at 10:32 AM

Advocacy, Beacon, Special Needs, Washington

Each year in January the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness sponsors the annual One Night Count of homeless people in King County, Washington. Over 1,100 volunteers come together and fan out across the county to count the number of men, women, and children who are homeless and sleeping outdoors without shelter. At the same time, staff at agencies operating shelters and transitional housing account for people staying in their programs. The resulting numbers are critical to understanding the magnitude of homelessness in this region and to crafting strategies and solutions to this problem.

Beacon staff gather at 2am in Capitol Hill, Seattle to begin One Night Count

Beacon staff gather from 2:00-5:00am each year to participate in the One Night Count. According to the Coalition on Homelessness the number of unsheltered homeless people counted this year totaled “at least 4,505 men, women, and children. This number is an increase of 19% over those found without shelter last year. This number is always assumed to be an undercount, because we do not count everywhere, and because many people take great care not to be visible.” Complete statistics from the count can be found here.

These numbers are sobering news for the Seattle/King County region and underpin the urgent need for aggressive solutions to homelessness. Through its volunteer and professional efforts, Beacon Development Group will continue to advocate for more resources to address the number of unsheltered people in Seattle/King County, such as the renewal of the Seattle Housing Levy later this year, and will continue to partner with clients to build quality, safe, and decent affordable housing to permanently transition people and families off the streets.

PRM Reaches 50% Complete!

Posted by beacon on Tue, Jan 26, 2016 at 1:36 PM

Construction, Family Housing, Sustainable Buildings, Urban/Mixed Use, Washington

Panoramic view looking south into the central plaza of Plaza Roberto Maestas

Plaza Roberto Maestas (PRM), El Centro de la Raza’s flagship mixed-use affordable housing development in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Seattle, recently reached 50% construction completion during the month of December 2015! With siding going up on the West Building and framing nearly complete on the East Building, the project is on track for completion by this summer.

View of the East Building at Festival Street (S Lander) & 17th Ave S

The $45 million project consists of two buildings including 112 apartments for low-income families and 25,000 square feet of commercial space including a child care center, community center, office space and neighborhood retail space. Both buildings are oriented around a central plaza for residents and community members to enjoy and are located directly across the street from the Beacon Hill Light Rail Station. Named for Roberto Maestas, founder of El Centro de la Raza, PRM realizes a decades-long dream of the organization to build new affordable housing and community space next to their schoolhouse headquarters.

Beacon has been working with El Centro de la Raza to realize the vision of Plaza Roberto Maestas since 2011, collaborating to structure and close the project’s financing, managing design development and permitting, and now overseeing construction. Funders for PRM include U.S. Bank, City of Seattle, State of Washington, Washington State Housing Finance Commission, Washington Community Reinvestment Association, and El Centro de la Raza’s capital campaign. PRM is designed by SMR Architects and the General Contractor is Walsh Construction, Co.

For more information on the project including monthly construction updates and capital campaign progress, please visit the Plaza Roberto Maestas website.

Affordable Housing & Transit

Posted by beacon on Thu, Dec 17, 2015 at 6:11 PM

Advocacy, Beacon, Washington

Brian Lloyd, Development Director at Beacon, recently participated in a Housing & Transit panel discussion sponsored by the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle-King County. Moderated by Bill Rumpf of Mercy Housing NW, other panelists included Claudia Balducci, Mayor of Bellevue, Rep. Jessyn Farrell, State Representative 46^th District, and Tony To of HomeSight.

Beacon is currently working on several Seattle Transit Oriented Development (TOD) projects: El Centro de la Raza’s Plaza Roberto Maestas in Beacon Hill, Mt. Baker Housing’s redevelopment of Mt. Baker Village in the Mt. Baker Station Area, and the construction of affordable housing in the Northgate neighborhood. Each project and neighborhood is different, but common themes exist across all affordable TOD work in Seattle.

With Sound Transit 3 on the horizon and the State Legislature recently enacting policy opportunities and tools for advancing affordable housing near transit, this is a very exciting moment in the region’s history. Therefore the key thread of the panel was recognizing and overcoming barriers by enacting tools locally to create affordable housing around transit centers. Panelists touched on the following topics.

The Impact on Place and Community Engagement: TOD can have a significant impact on place, and therefore requires an early and long-term investment in community engagement and planning. Neighborhood plans, equity and a mix of uses all need to be respected and embraced.
Request for Proposals (RFPs): Panelists were concerned with how RFP processes in station areas are created. Involving communities early is essential to ensure their desires are reflected in the documents, but this must also be balanced with allowing flexibility for developers to creatively achieve goals and outcomes.
Transit Corridors: What is our definition of TOD? Due to escalating land prices directly around Light Rail Stations, developers must also look at the corridors that feed high capacity transit, such as frequent bus routes. PSRC’s Growing Transit Communities Partnership offers strategies for communities to use in planning along transit corridors.
Surplus Properties: Having a plan in place for using surplus properties for affordable housing is essential in this conversation, and new tools will make it easier to access land near transit stations. As part of Sound Transit 3, the legislature required Sound Transit to implement a regional equitable TOD strategy, including offering 80% of surplus property for the purpose of developing affordable housing (either for sale, for long-term lease, or at no cost) .
Land Acquisition: Land for TOD can be expensive. The Regional Equitable Development Initiative (REDI) Fund is one source for nonprofits to finance land acquisition in TOD areas. However, questions remain related to coordination between land acquisition funding and permanent funding.
“Right-Sizing”: Right-sizing parking and commercial uses in TOD is an essential part of the development process and every neighborhood is different. There has recently been a lot of support for early studies of these issues in non-profit projects around the City of Seattle.

Both policymakers and developers stressed that a deeper level of conversation around these issues must take place for TOD barriers to be effectively overcome. Policymakers urged developers and advocates to develop as much consensus as possible in order to leverage policy making opportunities. The developers on the panel stressed that early involvement is key to success of TOD as well as flexibility around the deployment of funds, both in terms of incomes served and uses allowed in developments (i.e. the mix of housing, commercial and community space).

Ronald Commons Breaks Ground!

Posted by beacon on Fri, Nov 27, 2015 at 9:41 AM

Family Housing, Special Needs, Sustainable Buildings, Urban/Mixed Use, Washington

Breaking Ground

On October 12^th, Compass Housing Alliance’s Compass at Ronald Commons project in Shoreline, WA broke ground and started construction. Ronald Commons is an affordable housing project with an on-site 12,000 square foot Integrated Service Center, including a food bank owned and operated by Hopelink. Slated for completion in late 2016, Ronald Commons will offer services and permanent, affordable housing to sixty formerly homeless and low-income households, including families and veterans. All apartments will be affordable to residents making between 30 percent and 50 percent of area median income.

Beacon is providing development services on the project. Other partners include Ronald United Methodist Church, Walsh Construction Co., SMR Architects, and Third Place Design Co-Operative.

View of Compass at Ronald Commons from Linden Ave.

“Compass Housing Alliance is very excited to be developing our first permanent housing facility in Shoreline to meet the need for affordable housing. Ronald Commons will be within a community where residents can access multiple supports on their path to stability as well as the schools, arts, and other amenities that make Shoreline such a wonderful place to live,” said Janet Pope, Compass Housing Alliance Executive Director.

The vision for Ronald Commons began five years ago with the Ronald United Methodist Church. Through a unique partnership between the Church, Compass Housing Alliance and Hopelink, the Ronald Commons project will be built adjacent to the Church, which will also complete a remodel that expands space for community partners and furthers its mission of community outreach.

Plaza View of Compass at Ronald Commons

To finance Ronald Commons, Compass Housing Alliance received a combination of funds and support from the City of Shoreline, King County Housing Finance Program, King County Veterans and Human Services Levy, WA State Housing Trust Fund, WA State Housing Finance Commission, Impact Capital, National Equity Fund, Bank of America, Home Depot Foundation, LISC/Met Life, McEachern Charitable Trust, WA State Department of Commerce, and the Sambataro Family Foundation.

Beacon is proud to be affiliated with Compass Housing Alliance and this exciting project!

Beacon’s Asset Management Services

Posted by beacon on Wed, Nov 18, 2015 at 12:36 PM

Agricultural Workers, Asset Management, Sustainable Buildings, Washington

Earlier this year Catholic Charities Housing Services (CCHS) of Yakima was profiled by the Washington State Housing Finance Commission for their “smart, sustainable practices in affordable housing.” We are proud to be affiliated with CCHS and the great work they do, both in developing new housing and crafting forward-thinking approaches to the preservation of their older apartments.

Over the last several years CCHS and Beacon have partnered on a variety of creative asset management projects, in addition to the developing new agricultural worker communities together. In 2011-12, aided by a MacArthur Grant through the Housing Trust Fund of the State of Washington, we helped CCHS conduct an asset management analysis of their smallest and oldest properties, including a “green analysis” of each.

The resulting Portfolio Preservation Plan revealed some surprising truths related to the use and cost of water and energy at each property. For example, at some properties water accounted for up to 95% of overall utilities costs. And at many buildings, the local public housing authority utility allowances did not accurately reflect the actual electricity usage at CCHS properties, essentially overpaying tenants thousands of dollars a year in utility reimbursements.

Holly Anderson, Asset Manager at CCHS, quickly got to work implementing several changes. Under her guidance, CCHS examined water use both inside and outside of buildings, as well as the local municipal water rate structure of each community. Where it was beneficial given the rate structure, low-flow fixtures were implemented and in-unit laundry removed throughout older properties first. Holly also ordered extensive Landscape CNAs resulting in recommissioned irrigation systems and improved bilingual irrigation manuals; both changes conserving water and saving thousands of dollars at some properties.

In 2014 Beacon assisted CCHS in working with the WSHFC to change the utility allowance structure on several properties away from the local public housing authority allowances, since these did not match up well with the actual tenant electricity expenditures at each property. Beacon assisted with gathering twelve months of continuous electricity data on all households and presented the data and changes to the WSHFC on behalf of CCHS, in compliance with the State regulations. As a result CCHS generates an additional $4,000 to $7,000 in operating revenue per year at each property, greatly impacting the financial integrity of each small community, making things like consistent reserve payments and property upkeep much more possible.

CCHS property management staff took great care to provide adequate notice of the changes to tenants, both in English and Spanish, explaining the reason for the change since rents were increasing. Holly reports that “There was some pushback, but there hasn’t been a single complaint that has gone past our property management. Tenants may not like the increase, but it is well explained: They’ve been underpaying on their utility allowance for a certain number of years, and now we’re just matching their allowance to what they’re actually spending.”

It was a pleasure for us to assist CCHS on these asset management projects. Beacon enthusiastically undertakes these assignments with current and longstanding clients whenever possible, reflecting our deep commitment to the entire life cycle of affordable housing projects with our clients.

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