Monsenor Romero Apartments

3145 Mount Pleasant Street, NW

This was the redevelopment of a fire-damaged building into 63 green and historic apartments, creating affordable housing for low-income residents displaced from their homes in the expensive and gentrifying Washington, DC neighborhood of Mount Pleasant.

A slum landlord owned the building and was in a fight to illegally evict the long-standing low-income, largely Latino tenants so that he could convert the property to high-priced luxury condos. The tenants had joined together to obtain legal assistance and successfully fight the landlord for several years, when on March 12, 2008 a mysterious fire burned down half of the building and damaged the other half. This five alarm fire was the largest fire in the city in over 30 years.

We worked in partnership with the tenants to complete the interim step of purchasing the building in 2010 using a CDBG loan from the City. Then, in 2012 we were awarded almost one million in annual 9% LIHTC ($997,302), that allowed the building to be redeveloped while preserving the affordability for long-displaced residents.We completed a green, gut rehab and renovation that created 63 affordable homes that range in size from efficiencies to 3 bedroom apartments. Since the north tower had been completely destroyed by fire, the project was half new construction and half gut rehab. The project exceeds the standards of the Green Communities Initiative and includes a green vegetated roof, solar panels, energy-star appliances and fixtures, motion-sensor lighting, and low flow water fixtures. The building was completely sealed with up to 4 inches of spray foam inside the exterior brick envelope creating an air tight and highly efficient insulation layer.

In addition to the 9% LIHTC, the project utilized a construction and permanent loan from Capital One Bank, historic tax credits syndicated by Enterprise Community Investments, a $145k predevelopment loan from the Deputy Mayor’s Office, a $440,000 AHP award from the Federal Home Loan Bank, $200,000 from the DC Sustainable Energy Utility and a $4,137,000 acquisition loan from the DC Department of Housing and Community Development. The total development costs were approximately $19.5 million.

IBF Development was the development consultant and lead project manager for this project. The owner and developer was NHT Communities, an experienced nonprofit affordable housing developer based in Washington, DC.