DHCD Aims to File HUD Loan Application for New City

• September 25th 2020

by Nena Perry-Brown

As Douglas Development looks to move forward with its massive New City development in Ivy City, DC is looking to give the project a boost.

The Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) is seeking public feedback on a proposed Section 108 application to guarantee a loan for the New City development. The application to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is part of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program and is meant to supplement private financing in order to spur economic development, particularly in instances where affordable housing is being created. This particular application seeks to guarantee a loan of $38.5 million.

The New City development would span the 16 acres between New York and Montana Avenues off Bladensburg Road NE (map) (minus the triangular lot at New York Avenue and Bladensburg Road NE, which just hit the market).

As described in the application draft, the development would include nine buildings, delivering a 150,000 square-foot grocery store, 859 residential units, 210 hotel rooms, 45,600 square feet of office space, and another 149,740 square feet of retail. Twenty percent of the residential units would be affordable, with 25% of those units for "very low-income" households (earning up to 50% of area median income (AMI) under the CDBG rules) and the remainder for "low-income" households (earning up to 80% of AMI under the CDBG rules). A building permit filed earlier this year implies that the first phase of the development will deliver a six-story building with 212 studio apartments above retail.

"There have been multiple developers of the site in the past, however none of these projects came to fruition due to a lack of available financial assistance and the significant site preparation that is required to be constructed to bring public streets, utilities, open green space, sidewalks, bike lanes and other traffic safety measures to the site," the application draft explains. "The Project will not be able to succeed without the financing assistance requested in this application."

If submitted, this would be DHCD's first HUD Section 108 application under the current mayoral administration.

"The District has, for some time, been considering the opportunity to tap HUD’s Section 108 loan guarantee program to supplement our local and more common federal resources for economic and community development," DHCD Director Polly Donaldson told UrbanTurf. "In addition to New City, we are exploring possible loan funds that could help keep moving our pipeline of affordable housing projects."

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/dhcd-aims-to-file-hud-loan-guarantee-application-for-new-city/17332.