By Scott Nishimura snishimura@bizpress.net
The Fort Worth Housing Finance Corp. on Tuesday approved a $1.3 million, five-year loan to aid the development of a 140-unit apartment community at the Renaissance Square development in southeast Fort Worth.
The board – the full Fort Worth City Council – voted unamimously, after a motion by member Kelly Allen Gray, whose council district includes Renaissance Square.
The city staff recommended approval of the loan, which carries an interest rate of the lower of 1 percent of an applicable federal rate. The loan is subordinate only to the overall permanent financing for the project, Jay Chapa, HFC’s assistant general manager, told the board.
Development cost for the project, to be developed by Columbia Residential of Atlanta, is estimated at $20 million, Chapa said.
The community will have 112 affordable-rent apartments and 28 market-rate ones. It’s the first residential component to come off the drawing board for the mixed-use development at East Berry Street and U.S. 287, launched with the opening of a Walmart store.
“What we’re going to see is a different level of affordable housing,” Council member Gyna Bivens said.
Rod Teachey, Columbia vice president of development, said Columbia is waiting for approval of a 9 percent tax credit allocation from the state before it breaks ground.
It expects to hear in July, Teachey said. If it gets that, ground-breaking would likely be in the first or second quarter next year, Teachey said.
Columbia develops and manages affordable housing communities.