Yale Steam Laundry Financed
22 01 2010Now that construction on the Yale Steam Laundry West has started back up, you may be wondering why the about face… well of course it is all about the benjamins. The developer IBG Partners secured $50 million in Housing and Urban Development loans to start back up.
The second phase will include over 200 new condo units and they are shooting for a Summer 2011 delivery. We have a question though… is high end condos apartments a good use of HUD loans?
Considering that there are whole empty condo buildings right in that same general area, like the DuMont, no this is not a good use of HUD funds!
Well it IS a loan, so won’t HUD end up with more money when the loan is paid off? Sort of like the bank bailout- aren’t we, the people, richer now? hardy har.
it will be rental not condo. The HUD loan it received makes it hard, if not impossible to sell units. It should deliver in 2 years, which would allow Dumont enough time to lease-up or sell out.
Yale East is condos. Yale West is going to be apartments:
http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/breaking_ground/2010/01/jones_lang_lasalle_ibg_partners_get_hud_loan_for_yale_steam_laundry_apartments.html
I highly doubt these will deliver as condos, unless the market picks back up. And, yes, this is a good use of money. It’s not necessarily just the market that is holding back larger multifamily projects (from a supply/demand standpoint), but an artificial/temporary void of financing in these large sums due to National financial markets. The DC market is relatively strong and I have no doubt these units will lease well given their proximity to CityVista’s retail.
If we are going to spend hundreds of trillions of dollars on ’stimulus’, I think a loan from HUD in this amount for this type of project in this location is highly appropriate. So, although I think Tom A. was being a bit facetious, I believe it could be a good business deal for HUD.
It’s a rental project, not condo.