Although the transaction's scale is unprecedented and may not happen again, "You'll see more deals like this in terms of figuring out ways to bring private money into HUD programs," Abby Jo Sigal, VP and New York director of Enterprise Community Partners, tells GlobeSt.com. "It picks up on a lot of the work that Shaun Donovan did when he was the city's housing commissioner, to leverage private resources to make the public dollar go that much further." Enterprise is advising the New York City Housing Authority on compliance with the federal tax code's Section 42, which provides a framework for credits on low-income housing.

The complex agreement, which came together within a six-month period, entails all 21 developments getting sold to an entity created and controlled by NYCHA, thus qualifying them for federal assistance. The entity will be a limited partnership of NYCHA and Citi Community Capital, the community development arm of Citigroup. NYCHA will finance the acquisition and rehabilitation of the 20,000 housing units by issuing tax-exempt and taxable bonds, backed by credit support from Citi.

With the $400 million-plus in public and private funds, NYCHA will rehabilitate the projects over a period of two years. The projects will then qualify for $65 million to $75 million in federal subsidies for ongoing maintenance each year thereafter.