As a direct result of the devastation caused by Hurricane Ivan there has been a substantial loss of affordable workforce rental housing in the City of Pensacola and Escambia County.  Estimates run as high as 2,500 units of lost affordable rental housing.  In an effort to redress some of this lost affordable rental housing CEII is seeking to ramp-up its rental housing program activity by entering into the multi family rental development arena.  This will be CEII’s first such large scale multi family rental housing project - well beyond the scope of our usual CHDO duplex rental developments.  Palafox Landing will consist of 96 units of workforce rental housing on an 8.8 Acre site located at 7220 North Palafox Street just North of Burgess Road.  This site is presently utilized as a FEMA trailer relocation site and should be available for development within one year.  Prior to its use as a FEMA relocation site, the property was cleared and graded; water, sewer and electric utilities were run to the site and the “permanent” type trailers were installed.  Once the trailers are removed all utilities will remain in place and available for further development.  Minimal site work will be required for further development.

            The site was purchased by CEII/Palafox Landing, Ltd. in August, 2005.  The bulk of the financing for site acquisition was provided by the Florida Community Loan Fund and the balance was provided by SunTrust Bank. 

The lease to FEMA as well as ongoing payments have been transferred to Palafox Landing, Ltd. The neighborhood where the project will be developed is of mixed use including older single family residences, some smaller apartment developments and mixed commercial use.  The location is convenient to shopping facilities, churches, schools, medical and recreational facilities and a variety of major sources of employment.  There are no adverse neighborhood conditions in the vicinity of the subject site.   Escambia County bus service is available on Old Palafox Highway with a stop right in front of the project location.  A paved ingress and egress lane off Palafox Highway was built to facilitate FEMA’s use.
 
            To as great of an extent as possible, the project will utilize a “new urbanism” design with the fronts of the buildings and parallel parking facing into a landscaped access street which will provide ingress and egress for all units.  There will also be a separate landscaped courtyard area where tenant amenities such as swimming pool, playground, community center, computer lab and office will be located.  All buildings will be two story stick construction with a vinyl exterior with brick trim.   They will be built in an attached townhouse style.  The project includes adequate access directly on to Palafox Highway. The 96 unit workforce housing development will be entirely rented to low income tenants (with incomes at or below  60% of AMI).  The project will consist of eight buildings, two stories in height and will include 64 two and 32 three bedroom units.

            Palafox Landing will comply with requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and will meet the minimum ADA requirements for handicap accessibility.  Thus, of the 96 total units, 5 ground floor units will be constructed to meet all handicap accessibility requirements (5% of the total units).  All of the remaining two and three bedroom units will be standard individual family apartments.  Community facilities planned for Palafox Landing include a large community center with an adjoining swimming pool and playground/tot lot. As part of the community center complex we will be developing a computer lab and library for tenant utilization, a meeting space for tenant functions, a rental office/management location and a small maintenance shop.  The community center, swimming pool and playground will be set off to one side of the central ingress/egress street and its residential buildings which comprise the 96 unit affordable rental development.  

Financing for this development is a combination of local, state and conventional sources.  The bulk of the financing will be obtained through the Florida Housing Finance Corporation’s low income housing tax credit program.  An application for 9% credits has been submitted for the February, 2006 universal cycle.  Local funding from Escambia County has been committed and includes $1 Million in local hurricane rental recovery loan program funds and $640,000 in CHDO funds.  Additional conventional financing will be obtained as needed.