Tax-Exempt and Taxable Bonds Finance Significant Portion of Construction Costs for Permanent Supportive and Transitional Housing Units
Greystone affiliate, America First Multifamily Investors, L.P. (NASDAQ: ATAX) (“ATAX”), today announced that it has purchased $42 million in tax-exempt and taxable mortgage revenue bonds for the acquisition and adaptive reuse and permanent financing of a future 79-unit seniors and supportive housing community in Los Angeles. Frank Bravo, Managing Director at ATAX, originated the transaction.
The scope of work at 5500 Hollywood Boulevard will consist of the conversion of the existing vacant commercial building into a low-income housing tax credit multifamily development. The project will consist of one five-story apartment building after adding a mezzanine. Post-adaptive reuse, the property will be restricted to senior residents earning 30%, 50% and 80% of area median income. Thirty-nine of the units are anticipated to benefit from project-based vouchers, master leased by The People Concern, whose constituents are homeless individuals or those at risk of homelessness.
At stabilization, and no later than 30 months from initial closing, the tax-exempt bonds will be partially redeemed and ATAX will provide $18.1 million in permanent financing in the form a 15-year term, 40-year amortized facility.
The existing property, commonly known as the “Hollywood Western Building,” was originally built in 1928 by Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg and is now called the Mayer Building. The building is Art Deco architecture and served as the first location of Motion Picture Association of America, Central Casting. The building is recognized as having historical significance and is listed in the Historic Cultural Monument list maintained by the City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning.
As an adapted residential property, the building will be owned by Residency at the Mayer, LP, a California limited partnership. The borrower administrative general partner is ABS Mayer, LLC, a wholly owned affiliate of ABS Properties, Inc, and the borrower’s managing general partner is Kingdom Mayer, LLC, a wholly owned affiliate of Kingdom Development, Inc., a California nonprofit corporation. The limited partner is Columbia Pacific Advisors.
“We continue to pioneer innovative strategies to help public-private partnerships create solutions to build and maintain housing in the US, and we thank our partners for their dedication to this project, which will contribute 79 new homes to the affordable housing stock in Los Angeles,” said Bravo.
Ken Rogozinski, CEO of ATAX added, “This transaction is a prime example of the power that tax-exempt bond financing can have in combatting homelessness, and we are thrilled to contribute in our way to battling this crisis.”
Greystone, the #1 provider of HUD-insured commercial loans by volume, is also a Top 10 provider of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac affordable housing loans. In 2019, a Greystone affiliate acquired the parent of the general partner of America First Multifamily Investors, L.P., which manages over $1 billion in assets consisting primarily of mortgage revenue bonds intended for multifamily affordable housing construction and permanent financing.