Fort Worth Housing Authority Joins Effort To Buy Hillside Apartments
March 30,2014
Reposted from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
BY SANDRA BAKER
sabaker@star-telegram.com
FORT WORTH — The Fort Worth Housing Authority has approved forming a partnership with Downtown Fort Worth Initiatives Inc. to buy the mixed-income Hillside Apartments on downtown’s near east side, a project that pioneered downtown residential development nearly 20 years ago.
The 172-unit development was built in 1997 and spearheaded by Downtown Fort Worth Initiatives Inc., which acquired 12 acres in the Hillside neighborhood, and then leased the land to St. Louis-based McCormack Baron Salazar, which developed the $14.7 million project, and a partnership of tax credit investors, which are local corporations.
Federal housing tax credits were used, in part, to finance the project. Several foundations and the city of Fort Worth made grants to the project and there was some conventional debt financing.
Sixty percent of the units are reserved for families making less than 60 percent of the area median income. The project is bordered by East First Street on the north, East Fourth Street on the south, Nichols Street on the east and the railroad tracks on the west. Although they are called apartments, the units give the area the appearance of a single-family neighborhood.
The partnership between the Housing Authority and Downtown Fort Worth Initiatives Inc. was initiated after some of the tax credit investors expressed interest in selling, said Jim Johnson, of Downtown Fort Worth Initiatives Inc. The tax credit compliance period ended in 2012.
The investor group that bought the tax credits included Tandy Corp., now RadioShack; Justin Industries, now Acme Brick; Banc One Community Development Corp., now JPMorgan Chase; Wells Fargo Bank, Pier 1 Imports, insurer Gainsco Inc., and McCormack Baron. McCormack Baron serves as the general partner and has managed the property since it opened.
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