Homestead Capital In the Midst of Several More Investments

PORTLAND-Homestead Capital will provide $15 million in the coming weeks to fund four more affordable housing projects throughout the Northwest. The locally based tax credit syndicator provides equity exclusively for multifamily projects on behalf of its investors, predominately banks.

In the largest of the upcoming investments, it is providing $5.6 million or nearly 60% of the total project cost for Villa de Mariposas, a 71-unit affordable project in Portland being developed by Hacienda Community Development. Construction on the two-, three- and four-bedroom units is slated to get underway this summer.

Two more projects are scheduled to be funded this month. Homestead says it will provide $4.45 million in equity for a $5.9-million, 63-unit project by Rembold Cos. in Klamath Falls, OR, and $2.2 million for the bulk of a 25-unit senior housing project in Benton City, WA, that is being developed by Richmond Housing Authority.

The fourth project is a rehab of a circa 1960 complex in a fairly high-end neighborhood in Kirkland, WA. The 66-unit project by Downtown Action to Save Housing will have views of Lake Washington. Homestead is providing $3.4 million in equity for the $10.9-million project that will get underway this fall. “So instead of $300,000 condos it will be low-income housing,” Homestead Capital’s Mark Coffey tells GlobeSt.com.

Homestead Capital has raised $220 million used to develop more than 2,200 units of affordable housing. The corporation celebrated its 10th anniversary last week at Portland’s Center for the Performing Arts. Homestead Founder and CEO Deborah Saweuyer-Parks used the occasion to announce the opening of its 11th investor fund.

In speaking briefly with GlobeSt.com about Homestead’s upcoming investments, Saweuyer-Parks declined to go into detail about the latest fund, citing regulations restricting any communication that may be considered to be soliciting investors. Local sources familiar with the fund tell GlobeSt.com that Homestead plans to close the fund at about $50 million and, unlike its existing funds that have invested strictly in 100% affordable projects, this one is expected to invest in some mixed-use and mixed-income projects.