The sale price of the 28 or so homes that will be for sale to Key Westers who meet the income guidelines and qualify for affordable housing is going down to more affordable levels.
The 98 rental apartments and 28 ownership townhomes, known as The Lofts at Bahama Village, are destined for the final 3.2 acres of land at Truman Waterfront, which the Navy gave to the city about 20 years ago.
But the initial purchase price listed for a two-bedroom home — $667,000 — gave many people sticker shock and raised concerns about the affordability of an affordable housing neighborhood. The Lofts’ developers offered repeated reassurances that the purchase price would be lowered, and that’s what’s happening now.
The city’s code includes an affordable housing and income formula that prevents owned homes from being affordable, Scott Pridgen told the Keys Weekly back in August. Pridgen is executive director of AH Monroe, which is part of The Lofts development team.
City officials have changed the code and its formula, bringing the purchase price of a two-bedroom home at The Lofts down to $322,875. The new price for a three-bedroom owned home at The Lofts will be $358,750, Pridgen told the Keys Weekly on Oct. 12. He has said from the start that he and the development group aimed to get prices down to $345,000 to $415,000.
In order to lower the purchase price, the city of Key West has requested $4.8 million from the Monroe County Land Authority, City Manager Patti McLauchlin told the Bahama Village Redevelopment Advisory Committee on Oct. 3.
That $4.8 million will provide subsidies to lower the cost of homes. The infusion of money from the land authority will make up the difference between the lower sale price and the cost to the developer to build the homes, Pridgen said in August.
“Once we get approval from the land authority, which we don’t expect will be a problem, we’ll continue moving forward on this,” McLauchlin said.
Developers of The Lofts hope to break ground in six or seven months. At that point, they will begin accepting formal applications for the rental and home ownership units.
