May 11, 2011—City, state, and federal officials joined The Michaels Organization yesterday to mark the grand "reopening" of Lindsay Apartments, an affordable apartment community serving very low-income families in rural Tulare County, California. The complete revitalization of Lindsay Apartments, which was built in 1976, also marks the first rehabilitation effort by The Michaels Organization of a property in its newly acquired portfolio of affordable apartment assets in California.
"We are grateful to the city and state officials, as well as to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for their tremendous support," said Michael Boettger, the Michaels Development Company vice president who led the rehabilitation effort. "We are very proud that we have been able to modernize and improve Lindsay Apartments, and to ensure that the community will remain as affordable housing for decades to come," Boettger said.
Michaels Development and its sister company, Interstate Realty Management, are part of The Michaels Organization, the number one private-sector affordable housing owner and developer in the country, which acquired Lindsay Apartments as part of its recent acquisition of the California-based PAM Companies.
With its rent-restricted compliance period set to expire in December 2010, Michaels set out to preserve the 60-unit garden-style community as much needed-affordable housing, while investing in significant capital improvements, including the addition of a new community center, which will provide space for enhanced supportive services and recreation activities for the residents.
The extensive rehabilitation also focused on improving energy efficiencies and water conservation at Lindsay, including a new plumbing system that replaced antiquated central boilers, R-30 insulation, common area solar panels, and "xeriscaping," a landscaping technique that reduces the need for water and irrigation. Interior improvements included all new kitchens and bathrooms for each apartment. In addition, three of the units are now fully ADA accessible, and another three units are designed to accommodate the visually impaired.
"I'm very impressed with the renovation and the effort that was put in to making the apartments a true asset to our city. It is exciting to see the use of energy saving improvements that was used in the remodeling," said Lindsay Mayor Ed Murray, who was among the officials participating in the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The Lindsay rehabilitation benefitted from loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's rural development program, as well as from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. The support of the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee and the California Housing Finance Agency were critical to the project's financing, and JPMorgan Chase and Bonneville Multifamily Capital, LLC are the project's construction and permanent lenders, respectively.
Michaels's California-based team included Garbis Kataroyan of Fresno, who served as the Project Architect. Stockton-based Trinity Development & Construction served as the General Contractor.