COLUMBIA — An apartment complex in downtown Columbia is under new ownership, with plans for marketing more affordable units to teachers, police, firefighters and other essential service workers.
Affordable Housing Preservation Corp., a Florida-based nonprofit, recently closed the deal to purchase Vista Towers apartments, a 263-unit complex located just blocks away from the S.C. Governor's Mansion.
Before the purchase, Vista Towers advertised units for $1,500 a month for a one-bedroom, $2,500 for three bedrooms.
"It's already naturally quasi-affordable," said Christopher Walker, board chairman at Affordable Housing Preservation.
That's based off what is considered affordable for a household making 80 percent of Columbia's median family income, or $57,680, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Rather than seeing continuous rent increased at the apartment complex, Affordable Housing Preservation's purchase of Vista Towers will hold rents for a portion of the units below market rate for the next 30 years, Walker said.
"We think that we can help stabilize it," he said.
Affordable Housing Preservation plans to cap rents in at least 52 of its units at $800 to $850 per month for a single bedroom, Walker said. For a three bedroom, the max affordable renters should pay is $1,100.
The corporation also has a non-eviction policy in which it will waive rent for 90 days in the case of a "life event," such as job loss or illness.
To make up the difference, tenants who can afford to pay more will be charged market rate, with an average weighted rent of $1,400 per month, Walker said.
"When you think affordable housing, it's often concentrated in a certain area of town," Walker said. "To us, to do affordable housing right, you have to integrate that socioeconomic class with another."
Walker said AHPC operates in cities where it sees rents creeping up and purchases complexes in an effort to forestall that.
Rents in the Capital City rose 12 percent year over year in 2021, according an analysis conducted by AHPC and a number of other rental rate tracking firms. This matches national averages, which fall between 12 percent and 15 percent.
Meanwhile, wages have only risen 5.7 percent year over year, according to January data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
To finance its purchase, AHPC turned to the S.C. Jobs-Economic Development Authority to tap into the interest free borrowing power of municipal bonds usually reserved for municipalities and government agencies on private projects deemed to serve some public good. It's an arrangement known as a “conduit issuer," where the agency works as a pass through and is not responsible for any financial fallout should the project fail.
A total of $65.9 million in bonds were issued to pay for the deal, according to filings with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. These bonds were sold in a limited offering, meaning only pre-authorized investors who are capable of withstanding financial losses should the deal go bad were allowed to buy in.
Before the deal went through, Walker said the deal was backed by an undisclosed, $9 trillion financial group.
As part of the investment, Walker said Affordable Housing Preservation has plans for $3.1 million in improvements to the property, including installation of energy efficient appliances, road repairs and interior upgrades.
In addition to the downtown Columbia property, Affordable Housing Preservation purchased two apartment complexes in the Upstate, for which $65.9 million in bonds were issued. Those complexes included Orchard Park, which sits outside downtown Greenville, and Willowbrook, near Simpsonville.
Walker said AHPC owns a total of 400 units in South Carolina. Across the Southeast, it has 3,600 units combined in Florida, Alabama and Georgia, operating in cities like Tallahassee, Pensacola, Mobile, Birmingham and Atlanta.
