HACKENSACK, NJ - National Equity Fund (NEF), a leading national nonprofit affordable housing finance company, has provided a $27,457,000 loan to refinance a 115-unit multifamily property in Staten Island, New York. The financing comes in partnership with Iris Holdings Group, a national affordable housing developer and operator spearheading the development.
The Belmont Apartments community comprises two, six-story buildings in the St. George waterfront neighborhood of Staten Island. Constructed in 1966, the 130,000-square-foot property features a mix of one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom units.
Several years ago, Iris Holdings Group partnered with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to preserve and rehabilitate this property for varying levels of affordability for the next 40 years. The property has also earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ENERGY STAR® certification for superior energy performance based upon the extensive energy efficiency upgrades completed by the Developer.
ENERGY STAR certified buildings and plants are verified to perform in the top 25 percent of buildings nationwide, based on weather-normalized source energy use that takes into account occupancy, hours of operation, and other key metrics. ENERGY STAR is the only energy efficiency certification in the United States that is based on actual, verified energy performance.
“We had an aggressive closing schedule and without the cooperation and expertise of our partners at Iris Holdings Group, we would not have been able to close this loan in such a short time frame,” said David Martin, member of National Equity Fund Preservation Capital Advisors, LLC. “It was a pleasure working with Iris Holdings Group to further expand affordable housing options in this community.”
“Working with a like-minded mission-driven entity on the financing of the Belmont Apartments has been a great pleasure for our team. The world of affordable housing finance is complex and having a financial partner of NEF’s caliber makes all the difference,” said Chayim Kirschenbaum, a managing partner at Iris Holdings Group.
About National Equity Fund: National Equity Fund (NEF), is a leading nonprofit Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) syndicator with a mission to create and deliver innovative, collaborative financial solutions to expand the creation and preservation of affordable housing. With a 35-year track record of success as an asset manager in affordable multi-family rental housing, our partners (investors and developers alike) consistently value our reliability, persistence, ingenuity, and high standards.
Beyond LIHTC, NEF continues to expand our suite of financial solutions to do more to help close the affordable housing gap in new ways, while always staying aligned to our mission. We've diversified our product offerings through pre-development, preservation, and workforce lending, allowing us to further assist our partners as they seek to expand their efforts to provide both low-income and middle-income affordable housing.
Through our diverse multi and single-investor funds, we generate opportunities rooted in our vision that all individuals and families across the country have access to stable, safe, and affordable homes that provide a foundation for them to reach their full potential.