Two groundbreaking events held Monday set wheels in motion for the creation of a total of 252 units of affordable housing in Knoxville.
In the morning, officials broke ground on Phase 3 of KCDC’s extensive Five Points neighborhood redevelopment project, located at the west corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and McConnell Street. Within sight of the newly exposed red dirt was The Residences at Five Points, the senior housing component of the development, while just a block away, the 84 units included in Phase 2 are nearing completion and slated to open this summer.
Later that afternoon, as temperatures hit 90 degrees, a smaller group of housing partners gathered under a tent on a recently cleared lot just off Chapman Highway.
John Shepard of Nashville-based housing developer Elmington Capital Group led the ground-breaking ceremony at 2712 E. Martin Mill Pike, site of the future Southside Flats affordable housing development.
“When it’s complete, Southside Flats will bring working families to a thriving, energized South Knoxville,” Mayor Madeline Rogero said.
Speakers at both events stressed the key role that partnerships between public, non-profit and private entities play in making affordable housing a reality. The number of pieces in the affordable housing puzzle led KCDC Executive Director and CEO Ben Bentley to joke about the number of collaborators he thanked at the Five Points event: banks, architects, contractors, designers, city officials and neighbors.
“You’d think I’d be done, but there are more,” he said.
In South Knoxville, Mayor Madeline Rogero thanked City Council members for their support and approval of the Mayor’s Affordable Rental Development Fund, $360,000 of which will go to the Southside Flats project.
“In order to keep rents affordable for a long term, 20 years in this case, developments of this type cannot carry a large amount of debt,” says the City’s Community Development Director Becky Wade. “Support from the City’s Affordable Rental Development Fund, in combination with our federal HOME dollars, low-income housing tax credits and traditional mortgage financing can be the recipe for a quality, attractive and energy-efficient development with long-term affordability.”
Affordable housing projects by the numbers:
FIVE POINTS PHASE 3
• 28 buildings with a total of 80 one-, two- and three-bedroom units, plus a playground, open green space and a computer room
• $12.5 million construction cost estimate, funded primarily through low-income housing tax credits from the Tennessee Housing Development Agency (THDA). Wells Fargo serves as equity partner; Home Federal Bank of Tennessee is the mortgage lender.
• City of Knoxville has contributed more than $13 million to the four-phase development over the past 10 years.
SOUTHSIDE FLATS
• 172 units (84 one-bedroom, 51 two-bedroom and 37 three-bedroom), plus a community room, computer room, laundry room, playground, fitness center, mail/ bike storage.
• $29.9 million construction cost estimate, with funding provided by Elmington Capital Group, $540,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Development (HUD) HOME funds; $360,000 from the City’s Affordable Rental Development Fund; low-income housing tax credits from THDA; and private equity financing by Berkadia Bank.
• Knoxville’s Community Development Corp. (KCDC) will provide project-based housing vouchers for 60 of the units, which allows renters earning even lower incomes to qualify.