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HomeMy WebLinkAboutINNOVATION ISLAND, FIRST FILING - FDP - 40-05B - CORRESPONDENCE - AFFORDABLE HOUSING MEMO.10 o The purchaser plans to build units affordable to families at 80% AMI, still considered affordable under the City of Fort Collins Standards. Even though we would not be building at Innovation Island, we are assured through the contract that affordable housing would still happen through our efforts. Cons: No we should NOT sell the Innovation Island Property ■ We currently have entitled land. ■ We put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this project already. A lot of staff and volunteer time. We would not "recover" this cost through the sale of Innovation Island. ■ The City of Fort Collins may be upset that we are selling considering how they bent over backwards to help us on this project. It might tarnish our reputation. Pros & Cons of Selling Innovation Island Pros -Yes, we should sell Innovation Island When we purchased the Innovation Island property we had not yet begun to build multi- family. Since building our first 6-plex at Rigden, we've learned a lot. Here are some reasons why building multi -family has not worked as well as we had first thought: o Habitat International has ruled that affiliates can no longer sell "bake sale"units or build them using volunteer labor. This came in the form of a directive from HFHI and our Innovation Island property was not "grandfathered" in. Our original business plan worked because we had planned to sell units at market to "subsidize" the Habitat units. That business plan now no longer works! o Given this, it will take us a long time to raise the money to build the larger buildings designed at Innovation Island. This was something the neighbors were worried about at the Community Meetings. o Cash flow for building six to seven units at once is a challenge and more difficult than we had imagined. o As the cost of building has increased, the full sponsorships of $100,000 are not forthcoming. This means we must build our multi -family units with sponsorships averaging $2,500 for team builds to $25,000 for corporate sponsors. This means many more sponsors have to come to the table at once which has proven very difficult. o Sponsors have told us that although they enjoyed the experience of the community build, they would prefer to build a single-family home next time. In fact, several sponsors said they will only sponsor again if they can build single- family. o Building one six-plex takes longer than building individual units because of the enormity of the buildings. o We haven't really "saved" building multi -family except for land costs. Because we're building multi -story, we've had to sub out things that we normally could do with volunteers. In fact, the Rigden unit costs came in close to appraisal —even using volunteer labor. o When we purchased Innovation Island, there were no single-family lots available. Today, we have other options. Habitat International prohibits building units, but it does NOT prohibit our developing a piece of raw ground and selling off lots. This new approach would work only in a single-family environment. o The cost of carrying the loan for Innovation Island is $6,187.50 per quarter (this is an interest -only loan) or $24,750/year carrying charges. So far, we have paid $31,737.33 to Funding Partners since the loan originated in August 2005. We will also need to raise funds for infrastructure that are estimated at $300K plus. o We are paying approximately $200 per month just in property taxes. o We are still trying.to find sponsors for the remaining units at Rigden. We have only one so far. o We have noticed that sponsors of the Community Builds have taken less "ownership" of the volunteer efforts. As such, we saw a tremendous shortage of volunteers. o The offer that we have today of $850,000 would cover all of our expenses to -date (including the original cost of the land) of $565,754.23. We would realize $284,245.77 that we could immediately use toward the purchase of additional ground. Blank Page 1 of 1 Steve Olt - Clarification From: "Candace Mayo" <cmayo@fortcollinshabitat.org> To: "Steve Olt" <SOLT@fcgov.com> Date: 05/31 /2007 8:37 PM Subject: Clarification Steve, Just wanted to be certain you knew that when we purchased Innovation Island land, there was no CDBG or Affordable Housing Fund money used for that acquisition. We borrowed the money to purchase the property. I am really concerned that if we now start to add a lot of "requirements" to the agreement, that my borrower will ''walk." I would hate for that to happen as we really, really need to sell this property. Since Habitat International has now forbidden us to build "market rate" units for sale, we cannot use the original business plan we used. There's no way Habitat can build to that original plan. I've attached the pro/con that I presented to our board of directors explaining the pros and cons on selling that property. It further explains all the reasons we would like to sell. I would urge you to read it so that you know just why we made the decision to sell. Candace Mayo Executive Director Fort Collins Habitat for Humanity, Inc. 4001 S. Taft Hill Road Fort Collins, CO 80526 Phone: 970-488-2602 Fax: 970-223-4524 cmayo@fortcollinshabitat.org www.fortcollinshabitat.ora file://C:\Documents%20and%20Settings\solt\Local%20Settings\Temp\GW}0000LHTM 06/01/2007