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JOLIET, IL-A joint venture between Chicago-based Senior Lifestyle Corp. and United Neighborhood Organization has broken ground for Senior Suites of Joliet, an $18.7-million restoration and conversion of the now-vacant historic YMCA building at the corner of Ottawa and Webster streets. It will contain 90 residential rental units, five of which will be market rate.
Senior Suites is Senior Lifestyle's model for affordable housing. It has developed, and owns and manages 15 such properties in Chicago, and this will be its first in the suburbs. It will contain 90 residential rental units for seniors. Of those, 16 are studio layouts ranging from 415 sf to 585 sf that will rent for between $396 and $690 a month. The other 74 units are one-bedrooms, ranging from 520 sf to 1,068 sf at rental rates of between $424 and $810 a month.
The five one-bedroom units that rent for $810 a month are market rate, Robert Gawronski, Senior Lifestyle's VP of development and acquisition, tells GlobeSt.com. "All of the other 85 units are set aside for seniors with annual household incomes at or below 60% of the area median income." The median for a single-person household is $31,680 a year, while it is $36,180 a year for two-person households.
The facility will also contain more than 5,500 sf of common-area amenities, including a dining room, library with two restored fireplaces, exercise capacity and free laundry. Housekeeping, scheduled transportation, meal service and planned activities are included in the rent.
The building was designed by D.H. Burnham & Co. in 1927 and was recently listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The YMCA vacated it nearly 20 years ago, and since then "it operated sporadically as a transient hotel," Gawronski says. His company acquired it for just north of $1 million.
"The cost of converting an existing building that calls for historic preservation is significantly--about $3 million--more than new construction," he says, "because you're not only working with an existing structure, which is like fitting a square peg into a round hole, but it also requires that you restore 90-year-old windows and still meet today's energy requirements. In addition, it's tricky to fit living spaces into a former gymnasium." To preserve existing space, this will have about 31 different unit layouts.
Yet, the historic register listing makes the project eligible for historic preservation tax credits, which join low-income housing tax credits in this instance. They don't cover all of the premium costs, Gawronski says, but they do make it feasible. His company will raise $12 million in equity from the sale of the tax credits. Additional funding comes from several small grants, a $1.6-million first mortgage from Harris Bank, and a secondary low-rate loan from the Illinois Housing Development Authority through the City of Joliet.
"Tax credits are a wonderful way of getting developers to invest in affordable housing projects that would not otherwise be feasible," he says. Senior Living is a prolific developer/owner of market-rate senior housing, which entered the affordable arena about 20 years ago. It has previously participated with UNO, Chicagoland's largest Hispanic community-based nonprofit. UNO is providing community support and some sweat equity for this project.
"This building is especially significant," Gawronski says, "because Downtown Joliet has many historic buildings and it is in the process of a major revitalization. Residential has been the missing component in an area that now includes theater, restaurants, shops and a new baseball stadium and casino."
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