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.
“The Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education (FAME) is a classic apprenticeship program that combines classroom learning with paid on-the-job experience, teaching skills in demand across an industry. A new report by Opportunity America president Tamar Jacoby and Brookings Institution senior fellow emeritus Ron Haskins draws on focus groups, an online survey and data from the state of Kentucky to shed light on the program and its outcomes for apprentices. Data show that FAME graduates in Kentucky earn between 60 percent and 100 percent more than other career and technical education graduates from the same community colleges. The message for policymakers: earn-and-learn training works, and the nation should redouble its efforts to take the model to scale.”
https://opportunityamericaonline.org/kyfame/
“A legendary heavy-metal band is helping Houston-area students prepare for careers in oil and gas and other industries.
The Metallica Scholars Initiative, created by the band’s nonprofit All Within My Hands Foundation (AWMH), and footwear and apparel firm Wolverine (NYSE: WWW) have donated $100,000 in scholarships to Lone Star College (LSC) students pursuing traditional trades and other applied learning careers. The donation, which Wolverine supplemented with free boots and other items, has provided direct funding to 120 LSC students.”
https://www.rigzone.com/news/rock_legends_support_energy_workforce_training-01-oct-2020-163446-article/
By Collin Huguley – Staff Writer, Charlotte Business Journal
“A Charlotte developer is moving forward with a pair of workforce housing projects in Rock Hill after receiving key approvals.
Tartan Residential, a Charlotte-based developer of workforce and affordable housing, is planning two projects in Rock Hill: Johnston Farms Apartment Homes and Dunbar Place Apartment Homes. Rezoning requests for both projects were approved by Rock Hill City Council on Monday evening.
The larger of the two projects is Johnston Farms, which will be developed on a 24-acre site at the corner of South Anderson and Princeton roads. It will include five three-story buildings with 120 two- and three-bedroom units, according to city documents.
Dunbar Place will be developed on a 6.7-acre site on the corner of South Cherry Road and Constitution Boulevard. It will have commercial uses as well. On the housing side, the project will include one four-story building with 100 two-bedroom apartments, documents say.
The Dunbar Place site also includes an existing 16,000-square-foot building that was formerly used by American Legion. That building will be redeveloped, with about half of it being occupied by J.M. Cope Construction for its headquarters. The remainder of the building will be taken by a restaurant or retail use.
Tartan’s Jeff Carroll told the Charlotte Business Journal that he hopes to close on acquisition of the properties and begin construction on the projects in early 2021.
There are two possibilities for financing the projects, documents say. The projects will be funded by either tax-exempt bonds or opportunity zone financing.
If tax-exempt bonds are used, Tartan proposes rent and income restrictions between 30% and 80% of area median income, with a property-wide average of 60%. If opportunity zone financing is used, there will be rent and income restrictions between 50% and 100% of AMI, with an average of 80%.
Both housing projects will also include a workforce-training incentive program to help residents earn down payment assistance on future homes. Residents who complete fields of study at a local community college, technical school or university will qualify for assistance on a newly constructed home.
Documents say the program will provide a maximum of $10,000 per unit in assistance for up to 18 residents per year at Johnston Farms and a maximum of $10,000 per unit in assistance for up to 15 residents per year at Dunbar Place.”
– Charlotte Business Journal
https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2020/08/25/rock-hill-affordable-housing-tartan-residential.html?iana=hpmvp_clt_news_headline
Davidson’s Landing is a workforce housing development designed to serve middle-income renters in Kansas City. The community will consist of 115 units, together with a wide range of unit and site amenities.
The project also includes an employer exchange and workforce training incentives, providing first-time homeowner down payment assistance to residents obtaining a degree or trade certification while working full-time.
Construction is planned for late 2020.
“Founded in 2017, All Within My Hands Foundation is dedicated to creating sustainable communities by supporting workforce education, the fight against hunger, and other critical local services…. AWMH supports workforce education through the Metallica Scholars initiative, which is currently in its first year…. Our intended result is that approximately 1,000 students receive instruction enabling them to get higher paying jobs. In most cases this isn’t the accomplished by attending school for two years to receive an associate’s degree, but rather the result of a three- or six-month certificate program.”
https://www.allwithinmyhands.org/news-media/photo-video/metallicascholars.html
Discover an innovative program that incentivizes workforce training so residents can improve their skills and eventually purchase their first house.
“Community colleges should accept and champion that they are the nation’s primary provider of job-focused education and training.”
https://opportunityamericaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Indispensable_Inst_FullReport.pdf
“We are lending money we don’t have to kids who can’t pay it back to train them for jobs that no longer exist.”
– Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe
https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a26789417/trade-schools/
