JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As Jacksonville continues to face a shortage of affordable housing, one local developer is turning small, underused parcels of land into apartments aimed at lower-income families.
Click here for more Addressing A4dability coverage.
Recommended Videos
JWB Real Estate Capital is starting construction on three affordable housing developments that will create a total of 108 apartments in Arlington and on the Westside. The projects represent the company’s first multifamily affordable housing developments.
Construction is already underway at Parkwood Commons South on Tracy Road in Arlington, where a nearly 2-acre site will become a 35-unit apartment community.
“It’s actually known as a national best practice to take these leftover pieces, remnant pieces, and turn them into productive uses like affordable housing, where a lot of times they’ll sit and they’re blighted,” JWB President Alex Sifakis said.
Rather than building one large apartment complex, JWB is developing three smaller communities of 35 to 38 units each on land the company already owned.
“So this is kind of an innovative project where instead of taking one big piece and putting one big apartment complex, we’re doing three smaller 35- to 38-unit complexes using the leftover land and turning it into a productive use of affordable housing,” Sifakis said.
The other developments are planned on Justina Court in Arlington and on Ricker Road on Jacksonville’s Westside.
Sifakis said the locations were selected because JWB is already familiar with the neighborhoods and local leaders supported bringing affordable housing to the areas.
“They’re neighborhoods that we know really well. The council people were really excited to get affordable housing in those districts and land that JWB has owned for a couple of years,” he said. “So it made sense to take those pieces and turn them into affordable housing.”
The three projects received a combined $28.59 million in financing to help keep rents affordable. The funding includes a $10 million award through the federal 4% Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, $9.8 million in bond financing and a $3.8 million loan from the City of Jacksonville.
“It takes a village,” Sifakis said. “You use the federal tax credits combined with local participation, and that’s how you make them work.”
The apartments will be reserved for households earning no more than 60% of the area median income. That’s about $45,000 annually for a single person and about $65,000 for a family of four.
Sifakis said he expects monthly rents to be about $800 for one-bedroom apartments and about $1,400 for three-bedroom units.
The projects come as affordable housing has become a growing concern across Jacksonville.
“If you look at the polling, affordable housing is the number one issue in Jacksonville now,” Sifakis said. “We think it’s kind of in JWB’s DNA to help solve this affordable housing crisis. We’ve been doing it in single-family for a while, and this is just taking the next step into larger-scale affordable housing developments.”
Construction is expected to be completed early next year.