Two weeks after approving the sale of land set to hold 84 affordable housing units in Park Heights, the city has now agreed to kick in $3.15 million in financing to help with construction for the project.
The money will go toward the cost to build Renaissance Row, a development being spearhead by Philadelphia-based affordable housing builder Pennrose Development in partnership with the nonprofit Park Heights Renaissance. The overall cost of the project is $21.3 million, according to an agenda for this week’s meeting of the Board of Estimates.
The developer laid out the financing stack it has assembled for the project in an agenda that went before the city spending panel Wednesday morning. It includes a mix of city and state loans, as well as more than $6.7 million in equity from low-income housing tax credits.
The agenda indicated the project will require $14 million in construction costs alone, along with other fees for financing, acquisition, development and more.
The board, helmed by Council President Brandon Scott, himself a native of Park Heights, unanimously approved $3.15 million in loans from the city, with $2.15 million coming from city Affordable Housing Program bond funds and $1 million from casino video lottery slots funds. The money will “be used solely to finance a portion of the hard construction costs” for Renaissance Row, the board agenda said.
Also on Wednesday, the board approved a payment in lieu of taxes deal for Renaissance Row’s developers to defer paying taxes on the property they’re developing in exchange for a deal to pay the city $50,000 annually starting in 2020 with an increase of 3% for every year from July 2021 through June of 2035. The PILOT deal, a commonly used tax incentive to spur development, is necessary to support the capital and operating costs of the project and bring more affordable housing to the city, the board agenda says.
The same board, which also includes Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young, Comptroller Joan Pratt (both running for re-election in next week’s primary), Acting Public Works Director Matthew Garbark and Acting City Solicitor Dana Moore, approved the $550,000 sale of the 24 city-owned properties for the development on May 13. The parcels included 4301-4319 Park Heights Ave., 4316 and 4300 Pimlico Road and 2600-2614 Rosewood Ave., plus a handful of other lots nearby, all situated near a main stretch of the neighborhood near Pimlico Race Course.
On that land, a partnership between Pennrose and Park Heights Renaissance plans to build 84 apartments that will be rented out to residents with incomes at or below 60% of area median income, adjusted for family size. The development will have a mix of 42 one-bedrooms, 35 two-bedrooms and seven three-bedrooms. The building will feature energy-efficient HVAC units, windows, lighting and plumbing fixtures in each apartment.
And on the ground floor will be a new, roughly 2,300-square-foot home for Park Heights Renaissance, the Northwest Baltimore community nonprofit that’s helping to steer implementation of the Park Heights Master Plan.
We have reached out to both Pennrose and Park Heights Renaissance and will update this story with any comment.
Commercial Construction will serve as the general contractor on the project, while Moseley Architects will be the architect.
As with other affordable housing projects, the estimated value of the property will be far less than its cost to build, the board agenda said. A September 2019 appraisal found the future value of the development would be roughly $7.16 million. The agenda noted that’s common in transactions involving low-income housing tax credit equity, and that “without the benefits of the LIHTC financing, projects with restricted rents could not be financed.”
The project is among several long-awaited ones in the Northwest Baltimore community that’s suffered from underinvestment in the decades since suburban flight.
Locally based Henson Development is working with a team of nonprofit and private partners on a 17-acre project that would add 280 to 300 housing units, including manor houses and townhomes, off of Park Heights Avenue. New York-headquartered Conifer Realty has been working with a team on plans for a 163-unit affordable apartment project near the West Cold Spring subway stop. And, barring further delays from the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, Pimlico Race Course is set for a $252.2 million redevelopment financed by state bond sales, which leaders say can spur a broader resurgence nearby.