New Affordable Housing Planned on Charleston Peninsula, on City-Owned Land
An affordable housing complex at 670 King St. is owned by the Charleston Housing Authority. The city owns land behind that complex, at the end of F Street, and plans to lease it to a company that will build new, additional affordable housing. Brad Nettles/Staff
Vacant land on the peninsula owned by the city of Charleston — seven-tenths of an acre at the end of F Street — could become the site of a 55-unit affordable housing development.
It’s a plan the city has been working on for more than two years, and there are some unusual aspects to the deal. Notably, the city will long-term lease the land to a developer rather than selling it or giving it to a nonprofit group.
Most, but not all, of the planned apartments will be set aside for tenants with low incomes; a difficult type of housing to develop that will be aided by city and state loans, a land lease, and state and federal tax credits.
Of the 55 apartments anticipated, 11 will be for people earning no more than 30 percent of the area median income (AMI), which works out to $17,000 for a single person and is considered very low income.
“Units in that particular category are often needed more than any other income threshold,” said Geona Johnson, the city’s housing director.
Another 30 units will be for people earning 50 or 60 percent of AMI. At the high end, there will be 14 moderate-income units for people earning up to 80 percent of AMI, $45,000 for a single person.
“I think it is very much needed, and it’s in the district I represent,” Councilman Robert Mitchell said.
The rents have not been determined, but typically in such developments the rent is up to 30 percent of the maximum allowable income of the tenants. Having some units for people with higher, moderate incomes helps generate enough rent to finance ongoing maintenance and repairs.
The property is located behind two affordable housing apartment complexes owned by the Charleston Housing Authority, at 670 and 676 King Street, and is bordered by F Street, the U.S. Highway 17 off-ramp and the Lowcountry Lowline linear park.
Charleston acquired the land as part of a $4.6 million purchase of railroad right-of-way from Norfolk Southern Corp., to create the Lowcountry Lowline.
City Council agreed on the night of Feb. 9 to lease 0.7-acres behind 670 King St. to a Greenville company for 60 years. The company is NHE Inc., doing business as Lowline Housing LP.
“Over the past year South Carolina has become more attractive in terms of financing affordable housing,” said Robinson Villa, director of development for NHE.
He said state and federal low-income tax credits, and state financed low-interest tax-exempt bonds, will provide much of the financing. The city and the Charleston Redevelopment Corporation also plan to loan the company a combined $1,670,000.
By structuring the deal as a long-term land lease, the city is lowering the cost of the project — the developers don’t need to buy land — and the city is not giving up ownership of the property. After 60 years the city gets the land back, plus the apartment building.