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Norman B. Rice, the new chair of Enterprise Community Partners |
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As many of you know, Enterprise Chairman Bart Harvey stepped down this month following a prolific, distinguished career at Enterprise. Harvey’s departure marks 23 years of outstanding leadership. No one has done more on a local and national level to help develop affordable housing and improve low-income communities than Bart Harvey.
I will personally miss Bart’s commitment and his thoughtful, bold approach to solving the nation’s affordable housing crisis.
Stepping into Bart’s very large shoes as chairman of Enterprise Community Partners is former Seattle Mayor Norman B. Rice, former president and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle. Jaime E. Yordán will serve as chairman of Enterprise Community Investment. Yordán is a former general partner and managing director of Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he started the Latin America practice for the firm in New York. He recently joined Citi as vice chairman of the Global Banking Group to focus on developing the Citi franchise in Latin America.
Both Rice and Yordán currently serve on the Enterprise Community Partners board; Jaime since 2002 and Norm since 2005. Enterprise’s D.C. office welcomes both gentlemen to the Enterprise family. Read the news release. (PDF, 26K)
I am pleased to report that Enterprise’s work in the D.C. region made important gains in 2007. We are grateful to our partners for their role in these efforts.
- Enterprise’s $28 million D.C. Preservation Fund made more than $18 million in loans for eight affordable housing developments to help preserve or produce 430 affordable rental and ownership homes in eight affordable housing developments. Enterprise also provided $142,000 in loans to help projects in the very early development stages. We also provided a $13.7 million mortgage to support a 212-unit development in Silver Spring, Md. In addition, Enterprise provided $330,000 in grants to help strengthen 15 nonprofits and tenant associations.
- To date, Enterprise’s Faith-Based Development Initiative in D.C. has made $755,000 in loans to four churches and faith-based groups building or preserving affordable housing. Formed in 2006, the initiative is a collaborative with East of the River Clergy Police Community Partnership and Georgetown University. It also has provided more than $112,000 in technical assistance and capacity building grants to nine churches and faith-based groups. And it has led 10 training sessions and five networking lunches. These events have drawn more than 230 attendees from nearly 70 houses of worship and faith-based organizations.
- Enterprise’s Green Communities initiative is helping to green affordable housing in the nation’s capital and surrounding region. To date, Green Communities has provided $8.5 million in grants, loans and tax-credit equity to support nine green projects and nearly 600 healthy, green and sustainable homes in the D.C. metro area.
Enterprise’s D.C. office looks forward to working with you. Feel free to email me if you have questions, comments or ideas. We welcome your input!
-- David Bowers, Director of Enterprise's Washington, D.C., Office
In 2007, Enterprise made a $1.8 million bridge loan to help the Prince George’s County-based Housing Initiative Partnership (HIP) preserve and renovate 44 affordable apartments for ownership. HIP’s projects involve tenants who want to buy their buildings and convert their apartments into condos and limited-equity cooperatives for homeownership.
HIP Deputy Director Stephanie Prange Proestel said Enterprise has played a critical role: “Enterprise provides accessible, low-cost funds. Most importantly, they understand the tenant purchase process and are very responsive to the needs of the community.”
Enterprise recently provided two more loans: a $3 million loan to the 420 16th Street SE Cooperative for
33 homeownership units, and a $1.1 million loan to the Marian Russell Cooperative for
12 homeownership units. Enterprise also provided each tenant association a $7,500 grant to learn more about purchasing and operating an apartment building.
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Partners and residents during a groundbreaking ceremony at Enterprise’s first New Markets Tax Credit investment in Washington, D.C. |
Partners and residents gathered last month to break ground on Enterprise’s first New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) investment in Washington, D.C. The 27-unit Ontario Court in Adams Morgan will be rehabbed and enhanced with a 24-hour child care center.
The February 5 groundbreaking included representatives of Enterprise, Jubilee Housing, the District of Columbia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), Jubilee JumpStart and PNC Bank. The event commemorated the start of the building’s renovation, expected to be complete this fall.
“The benefits that affordable housing and a 24-hour child care center bring to the community are immeasurable,” said Michael Harreld, PNC Bank regional president for greater Washington, D.C. “We look forward to increasing our investment through PNC Grow Up Great, our early-childhood education initiative, once the child care center opens.”
Financing for Ontario Court includes a $9.4 million NMTC allocation, $8.6 million in Enterprise loans, a $2.8 million investment from PNC New Markets Investment Partners, a $2.9 million loan from PNC Bank, a $3.4 million loan from DHCD’s Housing Production Trust Fund, and other Jubilee Housing funds. Read more.
Enterprise provided a $4 million loan and a $25,000 technical assistance grant to support the green renovation of Wheeler Terrace. The D.C.-based Community Preservation Development Corporation owns and is developing the multifamily rental building in Southeast Washington.
Wheeler Terrace will meet Enterprise’s Green Communities Criteria. It will be the subject of an important case study for affordable green development. In addition, the National Center for Healthy Housing will evaluate the green enhancements and their impact on improving human health and reducing allergen levels.
Enterprise and its green partners, including the D.C. Green Communities initiative collaborator, GreenHOME, are collaborating with city officials to help ensure the successful implementation of the D.C. Green Building Act.
The landmark law requires most government-funded affordable housing to be designed, built and rehabbed to meet Enterprise’s Green Communities Criteria beginning in October 2008. Enterprise and GreenHOME met with several senior agency directors to help initiate the District’s interagency green team. D.C. Green Communities also conducted an initial training for more than 50 staff from seven district agencies. More trainings will follow.
Enterprise and GreenHOME have been co-sponsoring presentations to educate the region’s public and private development industries about the new law. Among them was a presentation to 50 key D.C. government officials and other stakeholders, by Chris Garvin of Terrapin Bright Green.
Enterprise and GreenHOME have helped to:
- Change DHCD’s standard proposal request, requiring an integrated design charrette before submitting a proposal.
- Offered grants, matched by DHCD, to help nonprofit developers fund the charrettes, and identified and briefed green charrette facilitators.
- Conducted a green affordable housing training for more than 40 DHCD staff; additional trainings are in the works.
- Hosted a stakeholder forum on green-collar jobs to discuss the significant potential for local job creation, specifically in Ward 8. More than 150 community members and representatives from sustainable design firms, builders, labor unions, environmental organizations and District agencies attended.
- Helped to organize and testified at the Green-Collar Jobs hearing, held by D.C. Councilman Kwame Brown’s Economic Development Committee. The hearing led Brown to monitor the D.C. government’s progress on green economic development.
These efforts and activities are showing the D.C. government the value of ensuring the right expertise is in place to implement the Green Building Act.
More than 85 percent of the homeless families working with the Transitional Housing Corporation complete its transitional housing program. With such a high success rate, THC discovered that it had to do more than locate affordable housing – it also had to build or preserve it.
Among the organizations they turned to for help was Enterprise and its Faith-Based Development Initiative. The initiative encourages faith-based groups to build and preserve affordable housing, special needs housing and community facilities by providing training, grants and low- or no-cost loans.
“Enterprise helped us learn more about maximizing our resources, which is primarily land owned by churches,” said THC Executive Director Polly Donaldson. “We have the capacity to do more and indeed feel the moral obligation to do more. Enterprise has been a tremendous help along the way.”
Founded by a group of Episcopal and Lutheran churches, THC and its development arm work with churches in the Episcopal Diocese to build and preserve affordable housing. Donaldson says they have created a win-win situation: “We now have a way to accomplish our mission and sustain ourselves at the same time.”
In 2007, Enterprise provided THC’s development arm a $10,000 feasibility grant to help the St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Montgomery County, Md., determine whether affordable senior housing was possible on one of its sites.
The Johnson Memorial Baptist Church and the East of the River Clergy Policy
Community Partnership, Inc. developed a housing site for 14 individuals who recently left prison. Enterprise provided loans and grants to support the project.
A case study by JMBC/ERCPCP Board President Rev. Donald Isaac and his partners highlights lessons learned.
- : Enterprise will conduct a three-day workshop for the faith community on real estate development financing for homeownership and multifamily rental housing April 9-11, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., at the National Association of Realtors, 12th Floor Event Room, 500 New Jersey Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. Learn to project costs, income and expenses. And discover creative ways to structure financing and subsidies to fill the affordability gap. Participants who complete the course will receive a financial calculator and models for development financial projections. Registration is $150. Contact Jennifer Bonsall, 202.842.9190 ext. 22.
- : On June 19, Enterprise will celebrate the two-year anniversary of its Faith-Based Development Initiative. Contact Jennifer Bonsall, 202.842.9190 ext. 22.
- : The District of Columbia Bar Pro Bono Program provides legal assistance to faith- and community-based nonprofit organizations as well as small business entrepreneurs that serve low-income communities or individuals, and demonstrate a financial need for services. The Pro Bono program has helped nonprofits in areas of real estate law, employment law, contracts and tax exemption. It also has arranged legal counsel for low-income tenant groups. Training sessions and walk-in legal clinics are available. Contact the Community Economic Development Project of the DC Bar Pro Bono Program at 202.737.4700.
In 2007, PNC helped launch D.C. Green Communities with a $50,000 grant to support affordable housing developments that follow the Green Communities Criteria. The initiative has begun to transform the way affordable housing is built in Washington.
A leader in the green building movement, PNC has more certified green office buildings than any company in the world. "Our support for D.C. Green Communities is an extension of PNC's corporate philosophy of supporting green building as well as supporting quality affordable housing development,” said PNC’s Craig Pascal, Vice President/Territory Manager, Community Development Banking.
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