Johnston Farms Apartment Homes is a proposed 120-unit apartment community serving families in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The estimated cost of this project is $33 million. This workforce housing development project, which targets families between 50% and 100% of area median income, is proposed to be financed with 501c3 bonds. Construction is planned for October 2022.
The following video gives an overview of this energy-efficient workforce housing development. Feel free to contact Jeff Carroll at tartanresidential@gmail.com with any questions you may have regarding this or any of Tartan Residential’s other energy-efficient workforce housing development opportunities.
In 2014 Tartan Residential began work on Buchanan’s Crossing Subdivision – A 40-unit duplex development serving families in Kansas City, Kansas. Phase 1 consisted of 16 units and was constructed with traditional wood-framed exterior walls and R-13 batt insulation. Phase 2 consisted of 8 units and was constructed with R-26 polyurethane-filled structural insulated panels. In all other respects, the first two phases were identical.
This side-by-side demonstration underscored the benefits of building with structural insulated panels. Although building with panels cost more than traditional stick-frame construction, we identified a long list of construction, operating and financial benefits associated with panelized construction.
Our design team took what we learned and engineered a 3-story garden apartment building using structural insulated wall panels. Davidson’s Landing, a 115-unit workforce housing development financed with tax-exempt bonds and located in Kansas City, Kansas is currently under construction utilizing this building system. We are currently about 70% complete, ahead of schedule and below budget. Our first units will be ready for occupancy in the next month or two.
A few weeks ago our team obtained a building permit to begin construction on Buchanan’s Crossing Phase 3, a 16-unit workforce housing development to be financed with tax-exempt bonds. Phase 3 will be constructed with R-18 graphite-infused polystyrene exterior wall panels. We plan to use high-efficiency water heaters and HVAC systems for this phase. And we plan to build one building with panels on one side of the duplex and lumber and fiberglass on the other side.
Our design team – which includes the Virginia Center for Housing Research and Mathis Consulting Company (principal Chris Mathis is an MIT-educated building performance specialist and an ASHRAE Fellow) – plans to create simulated living environments in these side-by-side units to observe and collect data on for one year. This one-of-a-kind comparison should highlight additional benefits of energy-efficient construction systems.
The following video gives and overview of this small, but exciting project. Feel free to contact Jeff Carroll at tartanresidential@gmail.com with any questions you may have regarding Tartan’s energy-efficient workforce housing development opportunities.
So today was a really big day for my workforce housing design team.
About 8 years ago we began experimenting with structural insulated wall panels in workforce housing.
We began with an easy design – a one-story duplex building – and tallied up the costs/benefits of building with panels over traditional stick-built framing. What we learned was this: By spending a little more on the panels (about $4,000/unit) we were able to attract $11,000/unit of capital waiting on the sidelines to invest in ENERGY EFFICIENT workforce housing.
So we began tinkering with a more complex design – a three-story walk-up garden apartment building. Our team came up with a design that ended up attracting over $19,000/unit of capital for the first of these projects: Davidson’s Landing in Kansas City.
Today we set our first panels at Davidson’s Landing. Our construction guys make it look easy, but trust me – A LOT of coordination and hard work went into planning this.
Cheers to my workforce housing design team. You rock!!!
Received unanimous City Council approval for $18 million of tax exempt bonds for Johnston Farms Apartment Homes, our 120-unit workforce housing development located in Rock Hill, SC.
Our plan is to provide apartment units priced at a discount to market along with job placement services and workforce training incentives to our residents.
I’m really proud of my team for helping me put this deal together.
Here’s a short (4 min) video featuring kudos from City Council members.
Tartan Residential closed on a $25.8 million workforce housing development deal on July 22, 2021 – the first of a new class of apartment investments. We started working on this transaction five years ago. We survived COVID. We survived the loss of a key investor last summer. And we survived a $900,000 lumber price spike earlier this year. Yet we still got the deal done.
From the investment banker who worked with us over the past three years to close this transaction:
“Congratulations Jeff… you are the true definition of tenacity and persistence in my book Sir! What a journey… now go have fun building it!”
I am thrilled to get this deal closed. And I am humbled to have a loyal team of seasoned professionals to work with every day.
In this episode, Jeff Carroll and Phil Erhardt explore the objection that a proposed multifamily community will adversely affect public utilities, including stormwater, sanitary sewer, and domestic water systems. Jeff presents unique solutions to this objection.
If you thought getting workforce housing zoned was hard, just try getting approvals for a new manufactured home community. I know, because that’s what I did in the 1990s. People would rather have a brothel in their back yard than a mobile home park.
From the piece:
“Tacky trailers or the new face of affordable housing? That’s the debate policy-makers and advocates are having across Virginia as they work to figure out what role manufactured units should play in addressing the commonwealth’s affordable housing crisis.”
Semantics play a big role in the opposition to affordable housing. In this episode Jeff and Phil discuss a news story about the recent rezoning in a South Carolina community. Jeff will also discuss how he handles green or open space objections.
Classic NIMBY tactic. Instead of referring to this proposal as a 48-unit affordable housing community, it’s being referred to by opponents as a 300-person apartment complex.
Three observations: 1) “48 units” versus “300-person” 2) “affordable housing” versus “apartment” 3) “community” versus “complex”
This sort of wordplay is really dishonest. If you have a problem with a project, attack it on its merits instead of using word manipulation or rhetoric.
From the piece:
“The uncertainty of what a two or 300 person apartment complex would bring to the area is not something we want to roll the dice on….”
