Livingston Park Apartments, Cleveland, OH

Overview:

The Finch Group (“TFG”) was selected by the City of Cleveland to be the designated redeveloper of Livingston Park (the “Property”), located in Shaker Square. This endeavor builds upon TFG’s past successes within the City of Cleveland with the complete $115M transformation of Longwood into Arbor Park and the $29M restoration of the historic Park Lane Villa.

The Property is an existing 195-unit, affordable, residential rental property located at 3090 Livingston Road, Cleveland, OH. The present unit mix, square foot sizes, and rents are as follows:

The Property consists of 10 three-story buildings each containing 18 units, and 1 three-story building containing the 15 deluxe 2br/2ba units plus the management office, all located on a single 9.14 acre parcel of land.

In March, 2010, at a HUD foreclosure TFG took over ownership and management of Livingston Park. TFG diligently created a development plan that would (i) provide quality housing to its residents of limited financial means and (ii) provide a real opportunity to invest in its citizen’s social capital. One example of this is that the children of Livingston Park will have exceptional educational opportunities as they are zoned for the Shaker Heights school system. Shaker Heights is viewed by many as the preeminent suburb of Cleveland and has a very “highly rated” school system.

Development Plan:

The “hard cost” construction budget of TFG’s renovation is $7.2M including a 10% contingency. This rehab will involve replacement of the 40 year old roofs, the antiquated (and highly inefficient) heating and hot water systems, the “single pane” windows, the deplorable bathrooms, much needed enhancement of security measures and apartment entrances in addition to other green amenities. Additionally, our current rehabilitation effort will provide air conditioning which does not exist today, address the lack of security by deploying a camera security system and constructing appropriate quality (gauge) fencing. In addition, we will lower resident housing costs by installing free Wi-Fi access for all residents and upgrade the landscaping design to increase Livingston’s curb appeal.

Sources of Funds:

TFG has the knowledge base and experience necessary to know what is needed and we understand the various governmental programs that are making the above vision possible. TFG has assembled numerous and extensive federal, state, county, local and/or private sector financial commitments required to accomplish the comprehensive rehabilitation plan for Livingston Park.

LPA Associates Limited Partnership, a sole purpose Ohio limited partnership (“LPA”), acquired the Property using a combination of:

NSP stands for Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds, HTF stands for Housing Trust Funds and CDBG stands for Community Development Block Grant funds.

Green Communities Features:

Per the Green Communities guidelines, the renovations to be done at the Property constitute a “moderate” rehabilitation. The Property, when rehabilitated, is scheduled to meet all of the mandatory criteria, and some of the optional criteria, and is anticipated to achieve enough “points” to meet the Green Communities criteria for a moderate rehab.

History / Background:

In 2004/2005 Livingston Park benefited from some moderate rehabilitation funded through a combination of a HUD-insured first mortgage and Low Income Housing Tax Credit Equity. The property rehabilitation effort, while not inexpensive, was, in hindsight, inadequate in addressing the needed system upgrades and marketability of the apartment units. It did nothing to (i) make the property and the rental units appealing to individuals and families with moderate incomes that, because of Cleveland’s soft rental market, had other housing options, nor did it (ii) make the operations of the property cost effective.

The money available from the debt and equity of the earlier transaction went to the cost of the property acquisition; demolition of a number of buildings; the construction of one new building containing 15, two bedroom units; “rewiring” the entire property and the implementation of all new kitchens. The total prior construction budget was $4.6M of which $2M went into the new building (about $135k per unit), and $ 2.6M went into the other 180 units (only about $14k per unit).

Acknowledgement:

As stated in the beginning, when TFG took over the ownership and management of Livingston Park, it did so with (a) significant prior planning, analysis and thought; (b) a general understanding of what is hoped to be accomplished in terms of a redevelopment plan; and (c) knowledge that the City was prepared to accept and support TFG’s general development goal.

One of the certainties of dealing with the redevelopment of distressed affordable housing is that very little can be achieved without the wholehearted support of the local, state and federal elected officials. The City provided support to TFG from the beginning. The City’s support acted as a catalyst for other elected officials to provide their support as the redevelopment plan took shape.

We appreciate everyone’s efforts in moving the Livingston Park redevelopment plan from concept to reality.

For More Information:

Please visit the Livingston Park web site