K2 Urban Corp

[Skip Navigation]

Latest News

Monday, November 20, 2006

More affordable housing in works?

Grant may help lower prices in subdivision

Billy Bruce
From the Tallahassee Democrat

A new residential development that already will include affordable housing under the city's new inclusionary housing zoning ordinance may be able to provide more affordable units than planned - if a grant application passes muster with state officials next month.

K2 Urbancorp and city officials are finishing a joint, public/private partnership application for a $5 million grant from the Community Workforce Housing Innovation Program. CWHIP was created by the 2006 Florida Legislature to address the workforce housing crisis.

The Legislature earmarked $50 million for the program. That money will be divided in $5 million grants to qualifying applicants in locations across the state. The grant program is being administered by Florida Housing Finance Corp..

K2 Urbancorp is building Evening Rose, which will combine residential, office and commercial development in a traditional neighborhood setting inside Capital Circle Northeast just north of Mahan Drive.

The city of Tallahassee is contributing $2.69 million toward the grant to meet the program's requirement that local government kick in a 15-percent match of the total cost of the development, said City Attorney Jim English.

City staffers have found sources for all but about $1.2 million of the required 15-percent match and should be able to locate the remaining money in time for the City Commission's Dec. 6 meeting. That's when the commission will give final review of the grant application before submitting it to the Florida Housing Finance Corp.. Deadline for filing for the grant is Dec. 15, said Michelle Bono, assistant to the city manager.

"The city is very excited about K2 Urbancorp's plans, and is very excited about being a leader in the state in finding innovative ways to meet the housing needs of both essential work-force personnel and low-income residents," Bono said.

Dave Wamsley, CEO and managing member of K2 Urbancorp, said the company would use the grant money to buy down the selling prices of 92 attached town-home flats to provide below-market prices to essential work-force personnel and to other income-qualifying applicants. Essential work-force personnel include teachers, law-enforcement officers, firefighters, nurses and city and county government employees.

The town-home flats would be built in Town Village during phase two of Evening Rose. Town Village also will include 100,000 square feet of commercial, retail and office development. The town-home flats will be one bedroom/one bath, two bedroom/two bath and three bedroom/two bath units that will be priced in the mid-$200,000 range, Wamsley said.

To earn expedited permitting and other incentives offered in the city's inclusionary zoning ordinance, all of the 92 town-home flats will be offered at reduced workforce housing prices. A two bedroom/two bath flat that sells for $260,000 would be reduced to as low as $150,000, if K2 Urbancorp is awarded the grant.

Under the city ordinance, the developer of a subdivision of 50 or more units is required to offer 10 percent of the units at work-force-level prices no higher than $159,000. The mandatory requirement applies mostly in two zones in the city's north and northeast quadrants.

Evening Rose is not in a mandatory zone, but Wamsley volunteered the development for participation to set an example for other developers and to help meet the housing needs for workers who want to live in the community in which they're employed.

"This is really for the working middle class that has found it difficult to work and live in town," Wamsley said. "We're feeling pretty good about our application. We have a project that I think can really be a model."

City officials also think K2's project has a strong chance of being one of the grant recipients.

"The Evening Rose development should stand out among other applicants in the state in the innovation category alone," Bono said. "It's a unique, mixed-use and mixed-income development that incorporates environmentally friendly greenscape preservation practices down to preserving the tree canopies that are common here. It incorporates the old town-center tradition that puts residents within short distances of where they live and work. K2 is taking real care to ensure that this is a very desirable neighborhood, regardless of what price range you buy in."

Most importantly, the development is inside the city limits, where more and more middle-class workers are finding it difficult to find affordable homes, Bono said.

"When we talk about inclusionary housing, we're talking about people living near where they work," she said. "People who provide the key services in their community should be able to live there. That's the goal. The (city) commission is definitely behind it."

Phase one of Evening Rose will include 74 detached single-family homes that start in the low $300,000s and 25 attached town homes that start in the mid $200,000s, and estate homes that start at $600,000. Ten of the phase-one town homes will be sold at prices matched for income-eligible buyers as determined by the city. Phase-one homes are expected to be completed by April.

The same formula will apply to buyers of the 92 attached town homes in phase two. Families with annual incomes up to $75,000 can qualify for the work-force units, Wamsley said.

In phase two, 46 of the 92 town homes will be reserved for income-eligible essential work-force personnel. The remaining 46 town homes will be reserved for local workers who can meet the income requirements as set by the city, Wamsley said.

Commissioners continue to debate some of city staff's proposed internal sources for the city's share of the grant money. The commission has asked city staff to develop internal caps on how much money could be made available for such grants, and from which sources, according to Commissioner Allan Katz.

"Some of the funds identified are designated for helping lower-income people," Katz said. "We want to be sure we're doing this in an appropriate way and that we're not robbing Peter to pay Paul. In general, we all think this is a good idea. But there's always going to be specific impacts from using city money for something like this. So we want to take a hard look at this to make sure we get it right."

Dec. 15 is the filing deadline, and the awards are expected to be announced in January.

Many middle-class Floridians don't even dream of homeownership: They can't afford it. From 2002 to 2005, the state's median existing home price skyrocketed from $137,800 to $235,100, while the median family income increased from $51,800 to $52,500. Everyone knows the problem, but can anything be done to solve it? The Tallahassee Democrat will answer these questions and more with a package of stories on Sunday.