Subject:
Title
Resolution approving Pinellas County as an area of operation for the Housing Finance Authority of Hillsborough County, Florida (Authority) with respect to the financing by the Authority of the acquisition and rehabilitation of a multi-family housing development located in Pinellas County.
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Recommended Action:
Recommended Action
Adopt a resolution approving Pinellas County as an area of operation for the Housing Finance Authority (HFA) of Hillsborough County, Florida with respect to the financing by the Authority of the acquisition and rehabilitation of a multi-family housing development located in Pinellas County.
• The HFA of Pinellas County does not currently have bond allocation capacity to fund the Riverside Apartments acquisition and rehabilitation project located at 1589 Starlight Cove, Tarpon Springs.
• The HFA of Hillsborough County has surplus bond capacity available that will expire on December 31, 2025 if not committed to a project and has agreed to use the private activity allocation to issue tax-exempt bonds for Riverside.
• The property includes 304 units. Affordability requirements will set aside 85% of the units for households with incomes at or below 60% of area median income.
• The Board of County Commissioners previously approved the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act hearing for Riverside on January 17, 2023, through Resolution 23-5.
• No County General Funds are required. This item has no fiscal impact on the County.
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Strategic Priorities:
Prosperity and Opportunity
3.1 Increase the availability of attainable housing.
Summary:
Summary
There is currently an insufficient amount of private activity bond allocation in Pinellas County to provide the tax-exempt financing for Riverside Apartments. The transaction would need to wait until 2026 due to issues with some of the County’s 2026 private activity allocation. This creates a hardship and additional expenses to the development.
The Hillsborough County HFA has existing carryforward private activity allocation that will expire on December 31, 2025, if not used prior to that date.
To assist the Housing Finance Authority of Pinellas to get this transaction closed and started on the rehabilitation, the Hillsborough County HFA has agreed to use their expiring carryforward private activity allocation to issue the tax-exempt bonds for Riverside Apartments. In order to accomplish this, the County needs to provide area of operation to the HFA of Hillsborough County. This area of operation only applies to the Riverside Apartments transaction.
Once the area of operation has been granted to the Hillsborough County HFA, they will induce the transaction and hold a TEFRA Hearing. Approval of the TEFRA Hearing will come back to the Board at a later date.
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Background Information:
The transaction will help finance the acquisition and rehabilitation of a 304-unit multifamily development located at 1589 Starlight Cove, Tarpon Springs, Florida and originally constructed in 2001. The site is approximately 25.64 acres total. There is a total of 22 buildings, 19 leasing offices, which has a childcare center, fitness center and business center for resident use. Additionally, the property has a pool and a total of 600 parking spaces.
The development contains a unit mix of 80 one (1) -bedroom/one (1) bath, 128 two (2)-bedroom/two (2) bath, 72 three (3) -bedroom/two (2) bath and 24 four (4)-bedroom/three (3) bath units. The development will have 85.0% of the unit’s set-aside for households at or below 60.0% Area Median Income (AMI) and 15.0% of the units will be market rate.
Fiscal Impact:
There is no fiscal impact to the County.
Staff Member Responsible:
Kathryn Driver, Executive Director, Housing Finance Authority of Pinellas County
Partners:
Housing Finance Authority of Hillsborough County
Attachments:
Proposed BCC Resolution