Work Progresses on Hope VI Development

MEMPHIS, TN - Construction crews didn't let a little Monday morning mud stop them from building new apartments at University Place, a Hope VI housing development. The third and final phase should be complete by fall, said Tom Currell, vice president of McCormack Baron Salazar, which is developing the $68 million project in partnership with Community Capital LLC. The apartments are at the southwest corner of Interstate 240 and Lamar Avenue.

The first phase, 118 units of senior housing, and the second phase, 151 units of multifamily housing, are complete. The multifamily units are almost fully leased, Currell said. "What you see under construction is an additional 136 units of multifamily housing apartment development," Currell said. "We anticipate the first units will probably be ready by mid to late summer and construction will be complete on that third phase by the fall."

University Place is one of four Hope VI developments in the city. The others are Uptown, College Park and Legends Park. The first two have been built. City officials broke ground on Legends Park in October. Hope VI developments are a major initiative of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to revitalize the worst public housing projects into mixed-income developments.

Uptown and College Park include home ownership components, but University Place and Legends Park will be all apartments. "There is a for-sale development in an adjacent neighborhood called McKinley Park," Currell said. "We just closed the construction financing on that project at the end of the year. We will be going on with construction on four model homes in the next 60 days. There will be 30 for sale single family homes. We already have a few families who have expressed interest and are in the process of putting sales contracts in place on some additional homes."

The single-family home development will go on a corner of Georgia Avenue and McKinley Street. Community Capital and McCormack Baron Salazar are also the developers of Legends Park on the north side of Poplar Avenue across from Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center. It will include a commercial component.

University Place will not have any retail tenants, but it will have a new police precinct as a neighbor. "It is going to be immediately west of the building we've got under construction on E.H. Crump Avenue," Currell said. "It is our understanding that it will go under construction by fall of 2009. The city is in the building design process. My understanding is that will go out to bid some time this summer."

The Memphis Housing Authority is the sponsor of the University Place development. Financing is provided by Enterprise Mortgage Investments Inc., Bank of America, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Tennessee Housing Development Agency and the city of Memphis.