Proposed senior affordable-housing projects take step forward

Two apartment complexes to be built near the southeastern corner of North John Wayne Parkway and West Honeycutt Avenue have received more than $100 million in financing from the Arizona Industrial Development Authority.

The projects, Waterman Senior Apartments and Overland Flats Apartments by DBG Properties, each will have about 200 units. A significant portion of their inventory will be dedicated to affordable housing.

The apartment complexes, on a combined 13 acres, will share a campus.

Overland Flats will encompass seven acres and have units designated as affordable housing. The balance of its inventory will be workforce or market-rate housing, according to Barrett Marson of Arizona IGA.

He added that the need for such projects is large and growing.

“In the Valley, there is a substantial lack of affordable housing, so this area is ripe for new development of affordable-housing units,” he said.

The Waterman apartments will be restricted to those 55 and older and all of its units will be designated affordable housing. It will sit on six acres.

The $110 million in financing is being provided by the Arizona Industrial Development Authority, a non-profit corporation that is political subdivision of the state. AZIDA is a conduit issuer of municipal revenue bonds. It has the ability to assist private and public borrowers across the country.

“Affordable housing remains in tight supply in Arizona,” Arizona IDA program manager Patrick Ray said. “One of our main objectives is to increase affordable housing for Arizonans and these two projects will bring hundreds of units to Pinal County, which desperately needs workforce housing and affordable senior-living developments.”

This year, Arizona IDA has approved 10 multi-family, affordable-housing projects with more than 2,400 units statewide. IDA is a non-profit corporation formed in 2016 to make home ownership more affordable and to lower financing costs for projects.

With IDA as their financing partner, applicants can substantially reduce borrowing costs for their most important projects.

IDA issues bonds for the benefit of private users. Repayment is the obligation of the user, not IDA or the state. Proceeds from the bonds may be used for commercial enterprises of any kind, and the interest on them may be exempt from federal income tax. In Arizona, interest on bonds issued by AZIDA always is exempt from state income tax.

Developer DBG Properties has built and owns more than 7,400 apartments in six western states.