The Refinery Apartments will create 51 affordable homes through Low-Income Housing Tax Credit equity
ABBEVILLE, S.C. (March 9, 2021) – Enterprise Housing Credit Investments and Sugar Creek Capital today announced a $11 million investment in The Refinery Apartments, the first affordable housing property to close in South Carolina using the state’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, which launched in 2020. Located in Abbeville, close to the Georgia border in South Carolina’s Upstate region, the two three-story buildings will offer 60 new apartments for local families.
“The federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (Housing Credit) has helped to fund nearly all affordable housing created in the United States since it was signed into law in 1986. By enacting a state version of the Credit, South Carolina will significantly increase the number of affordable homes developers are able to create each year,” said Scott Hoekman, president of Enterprise Housing Credit Investments. “The Refinery Apartments will be a valuable contribution to the neighborhood while providing long-term affordability to those who will call it home.”
“State tax credit programs are the most efficient tool that states can use to boost their affordable unit production,” said Chris Hite, president of Sugar Creek Capital. “We are thrilled to invest in the first project in South Carolina to leverage this resource and we look forward to watching it provide housing to countless more individuals and families over the years to come.”
The Refinery Apartments will include 60 new apartments, 51 affordable and nine market-rate, for families in two similar buildings across the street from each other, developed on the site of a demolished textile mill. Shared spaces in the building will include a community center, on-site parking, fitness center, laundry room, business services room, management offices and a playground. The affordable apartments will be reserved for tenants earning up to 60 percent of the area median income, and rents will range from $425 for a one-bedroom to $630 for a three-bedroom.
Since the site location was previously a textile mill, The Refinery Apartments will also utilize South Carolina's Textiles Communities Revitalization Credit (Mill Credit). Sugar Creek Capital will provide the state tax credit equity and the textile mill equity, and Enterprise will provide the federal Housing Credit equity. Key Bank is providing $7.3 million in construction financing and a $550,000 long-term mortgage loan.
NHT Communities will serve as the sponsor and developer. “NHT Communities is excited to support Abbeville families with 60 new affordable homes in our second community in South Carolina,” said NHT president Priya Jayachandran.
The property was designed by Martin Riley Architects and Rehab Builders, Inc. will be the general contractor. Edgewood Management will provide property management services. Construction on The Refinery Apartments is set to complete in early 2022.
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About Enterprise
Enterprise is a national nonprofit on a mission to make home and community places of pride, power and belonging for all. To make that possible, we operate the only organization designed to address America’s affordable housing crisis from every angle: we develop and deploy programs and support community organizations on the ground; we advocate for nonpartisan policy at every level of government; we invest capital to build and preserve rental homes people can afford; and we own, operate and provide resident services for affordable communities. All so that people not only make rent, they build futures. With this end-to-end approach, 40 years of experience and thousands of local partners, Enterprise has built and preserved 662,000 affordable homes, invested $53 billion in communities and changed millions of lives.
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