The state of Florida told Key West officials in an Aug. 18 letter that 98 new workforce housing apartments at Truman Waterfront are approved for tax-credit financing.
The letter confirmed the approval that local officials and developers had anticipated. The 98 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.
“We knew we’d been approved, but the letter makes it official for the rental portion of this project,” said Scott Pridgen, executive director of AH Monroe, which is part of the group developing The Lofts.
“The Housing Credit program is authorized under the Department of Treasury to provide incentives for developers to construct or substantially rehabilitate quality affordable multifamily rental housing,” the letter states. “In exchange for this, developers receive a dollar-for-dollar reduction of their tax liability.”
Pridgen and AH Monroe have built more than 100 units of affordable housing and understand the nuances of tax credit financing and the need for public-private partnerships when building workforce housing.
The next step, Pridgen said, “ will be for us to submit our construction applications to the city’s Development Review Committee to start the permitting process, which will take about eight months,” Pridgen told the Keys Weekly on Aug. 19. He expects to break ground in April or May 2023. That’s when The Lofts group will begin accepting applications from potential renters and homeowners.
The tax credit financing applies only to the 98 rental units, he added. The Lofts also will include 28 affordable home ownership townhomes.
The purchase price of those homes has not been determined, as officials are reworking the city’s code and changing the formula that determines income levels versus affordability to ensure that developments labeled as workforce, or affordable, housing, truly are.
So don’t get sticker shock by the city documents that mention a $667,000 purchase price for a supposedly “affordable” townhome, Pridgen emphasized.
Officials are in the process of changing the code and the formula to bring the home sale price down to $345,000 to $415,000, Pridgen said.
The adjusted formula for lower-priced homes will require an infusion of money from the county land trust to make up the difference between the lower sale price and the cost to the developer to build the homes, Pridgen said.
“But we absolutely will be successful in getting that formula rewritten to get the purchase price of a home down to a truly affordable range,” Pridgen said.
Key West City Commissioner Clayton Lopez, whose district includes The Lofts, agreed with Pridgen and emphasized that the recalculated formula is essential to true affordability for home ownership.
Pridgen said his group and the city — including its new director of housing and community development, Demetria Simpson — are “working aggressively” on that recalculation.
The Lofts developers will hold a community meeting in September, at a date to be determined, to update potential tenants and homebuyers on the process.
