NEW TRENDS IN AFFORDABLE HOUSING
EB-5 FUNDED MICRO-UNIT APARTMENTS ARE POPULAR IN MARKETS LIKE NEW YORK , LOS ANGELES AND SAN FRANCISCO .
By Abteen Vaziri
While battles are brewing in Congress over the future parameters of the EB-5 program , developers in dense urban areas , from New York to Los Angeles , are innovating in new ways to create affordable housing while providing profits to their investors .
New York City recently sponsored a citywide competition challenging developers to help solve the affordability problems in city housing . Due to skyrocketing land costs , without financial incentives , such as tax abatements or attractive financing rates , developers cannot justify building badly needed affordable multifamily projects . Programs such as 80 / 20 tax incentives and EB-5 have helped developers get back into the development of affordable housing projects .
In July 2012 , Michael Bloomberg , then-mayor of New York , sponsored a competition and invited developers through a Request for Proposal ( RFP ) process to propose micro-unit apartment housing models . His idea was that in areas with high per square foot apartment costs , developers could create micro-unit apartments that allowed tenants to get access to less expensive , but not inferior , housing .
The adAPT NYC competition , as it was called , received 33 proposals from developers in the United States and internationally . In January 2013 , the winners were announced . As a result , New York ’ s first micro-unit apartment building constructed on a city-owned site in the Kip ’ s Bay neighborhood of Manhattan started construction in early 2014 .
In order to operate and outfit the Kip ’ s Bay micro-unit apartments , Monadnock Development partnered with Ollie™ , a specialist in micro-housing and co-living . The company was founded by brothers Chris and Andrew Bledsoe who left successful finance careers and spent several years designing and fine tuning the program .
The project opened in June 2016 . The typical micro-studio ranges between 265 and 365 square feet , though variations exist from one property to another , as well as on a market-by-market basis . Every square inch of space has been designed and redesigned to ensure maximum efficiency . The micro units are fully functional with no wasted space .
The bathrooms are handicap accessible . The beds are multi-functional and durable . The bed retracts into the wall during the day and converts into a sofa . Each micro-unit has a full kitchen and plenty of storage space . When furnishing and designing the space , the focus was to maximize useable floor area and functionality . Most importantly , the units are aesthetically sharp and offer full amenities and a service package . The units are attractive to young professionals and other renters whose budgets may otherwise limit them to older units or to seeking roommates on Craigslist to share a room .
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EB5 INVESTORS MAGAZINE