Tulsa authority OKs loans for affordable housing projects
TULSA — Two downtown affordable housing projects are scheduled to move forward after the Tulsa Development Authority voted Thursday to award $500,000 low-interest loans to each.
Following a roughly a 100-minute executive session during which commissioners also discussed other business, the authority approved going into contract talks with the backers of Hartford Crossing and the redevelopment of the Adams Building. A total of $1 million had been up for grabs among three projects, including Carpathia, which would have revamped the Cheyenne Arms and Denver Apartments.
Commissioner Nancy Roberts, who originated Thursday’s motion to lend the money, said each “had established wonderful plans and a total commitment to changing some significant locations in downtown Tulsa.”
Hartford Crossing will be roughly an $8 million mixed-used development at First Street and Greenwood Avenue. The first floor of the five-story building would be reserved for a large restaurant and other retail space, with the remaining floors encompassing 55 residential units.
“I’m very grateful for what they have done,” Hartford Crossing developer Neal Bhow said following the meeting. “This is going to make my financing easier. I’m moving forward. I’m truly moving forward.”
The development is the second phase of about a $7 million refurbishing of the adjacent Hartford Building (110 S Hartford Ave.), which is near completion. The base rate for the 525-square-foot residential units would be $789. Construction on the project could begin in the third quarter and be completed by 2020, Bhow said.
The Adams Building is a mixed-used project that would breathe life into a vacant high-rise at 403 S Cheyenne Ave. Developers of the 13-story building want to re-establish a restaurant on the ground floor — Casa Laredo vacated that spot last year — and install 60 residential units on the remaining floors.
Partners on the nearly $10.4 million project are Tulsa-based Addax Development, Newmark Grubb Levy Strange Beffort and J&R Investments. Monthly rents would be less than $800 on average, the partners said.
“I’m very happy,” Steven Watts, president of Addax Development, said after the meeting. “It will help us lower our rents. So that’s the main thing.
“We can offer more affordable units targeted toward workforce housing: teachers, firefighters, policemen, restaurant workers, those who maybe can’t afford to be in downtown. That benefit we’re going to pass on down.”
Originally constructed as a hotel in 1928, the building is detailed in ornate terra-cotta and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The redux could start this summer and take about a year, Watts said.
Citing a statewide housing study, analyst David Puckett told the TDA about a year ago that Tulsa County continues to fall well short of the demand for affordable housing.
“Really, the main takeaway is that we’re not even getting close to meeting the needs,” Puckett told commissioners. “That’s especially pronounced in the Tulsa area, where we are getting about 10 percent of our needs met.”