Richcrest Wins CoStar’s Development of the Year Award in Houston

Overhead drone photo of Richcrest Apartments.

AMTEX’s Richcrest Apartments received the CoStar Impact Award 2023 for Development of the Year in Houston. Richcrest Apartments is a new 288-unit affordable rental housing community with a mix of apartments for low-income individuals and families earning between 30% and 60% of the Area Median Income.

AMTEX partnered with the City of Houston and the Harris County Community Services Department to bring this affordable housing community to life. The development was made possible via private investments and the help of federal disaster recovery funding made available through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for recovery from Hurricane Harvey. Hurricane Harvey and other recent storms destroyed 3,000 housing units in the Houston area.

We also partnered with YMCA and provided them with space and resources on-site to so they can offer after-school enrichment programming, classes and supportive services to residents.

Richcrest Apartments is serving families and their needs by providing high-quality, affordable housing with modern amenities and on-site services. All apartments offer contemporary living for residents. Amenities include balconies with patios overlooking the shared outdoor space and modernized kitchens and bathrooms to provide the most comfortable living environment for families.

Read more about Richcrest Apartments’ win of the CoStar award here.

What’s Next for the Capital Markets

Artist's rendering of Somis Ranch Apartments

Affordable housing stakeholders assess the coming year.

Many of the issues that have been vexing affordable housing developers will remain into early 2023, with hopes that financial conditions will gradually improve as the year goes on. Rising interest rates, escalating construction costs, and a slowing economy continue to be the key concerns as a tumultuous 2022 turns into a new year.

Bank of America has provided $228 million in construction lending and equity investment to support AMCAL Multi-Housing, Inc. in financing Somis Ranch Farmworker Housing Community, a 360-unit affordable multifamily community for low-income farmworkers and their families in unincorporated Ventura County, California. In addition to building an energy-efficient community and providing impactful resident services at no cost to the residents, AMCAL will build a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment facility to serve the project in this remote location.

Read the full story in Affordable Housing Finance magazine.

The Grad San Jose Ranks #8 on List of Top Construction Projects

Silicon Valley Business Journal Top 8 Construction Projects list

The Grad San Jose was recently ranked the #8 largest construction project by size in San Jose by the Silicon Valley Business Journal. The Grad San Jose is AMCAL Equities, LLC’s newest student housing project near San Jose State University (SJSU).

This article originally appeared in the Silicon Valley Business Journal. Visit that website to read more of the article.

Forbes Magazine features AMCAL’s newest student housing project–The Grad San Jose–as students gear up for a new normal on campus

The Grad apartments living area

Veteran developer AMCAL Equities, LLC, is poised to complete The Grad San Jose in August — just in time for students who will be returning to SJSU in the Fall.

The Grad sits across the street from San Jose State University and is the first high-rise student housing building in San Jose, California. The Grad is a joint venture project with Swenson.

The mixed-use, 260-unit building will include apartments and student amenities. Most floor plans are designed to give students their own private bathrooms. One four-bedroom floor plan will include three bathrooms.

The Grad San Jose will include a three-story parking deck and an amenities deck above the parking deck on the back side of the high-rise building. The amenities deck will include a building with an exercise center, a swimming pool with sundeck, sports courts, picnic area and landscaping. The first floor of the high-rise will include 14,750-square-feet of retail space.

The Grad San Jose was featured in July 2020 in an article in Forbes Magazine. You can read more of the article at that news website.

Las Ventanas Affordable Housing Sprouts at PCH Station

Las Ventanas construction view

Ten months after breaking ground in Midtown Long Beach, AMCAL Multi-Housing, Inc.’s Las Ventanas apartment complex is rising next to Metro’s PCH Station.

Located at the southwest corner of Long Beach Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway, the four-story building will feature 102 one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments reserved for households earning between 30 and 60 percent of the area median income.  Additionally, plans call for 15 apartments to be set aside as permanent supportive housing. 

This article originally appeared in Urbanize LA. Visit that new site to read more.

AMCAL Completes 69 New Affordable Apartments in Partnership with City of Santa Ana

First Street Apartments external building view

With $8.5 million in funding from the city of Santa Ana, AMCAL Multi-Housing, Inc. has completed the construction of First Street Apartments, a 69-unit high-quality affordable apartment community developed in partnership with the City of Santa Ana.

To make this project possible, the Santa Ana City Council approved a loan for $8.5 million in affordable housing funds. Combined with low-income housing tax credits, construction of the project was able to begin in April 2018 with the demolition of an older, deteriorating office building. The project was completed and the new tenants moved in by late last year.

First Street Apartments is part of a revitalization effort to develop residential uses along the First Street corridor — a key gateway for the City of Santa Ana. The development is located at 1440 E. First St., which is adjacent to a public school, a quarter mile from an OCTA bus stop, within a half mile of the Santa Ana Zoo and less than a mile from a Kaiser Permanente hospital.

“The lack of affordable housing is a growing crisis in Orange County and throughout California,” said Councilmember Vicente Sarmiento, who represents Ward 1 where the project is located. “By investing in development that supports the needs of working families, the City of Santa Ana is planning for a future in which everyone has a place to call home.”

The new apartment community was constructed on approximately 2.16 acres and has apartments ranging in size from 782 to 1,219 square feet, with two-, three- and four-bedroom units for larger families, which are rare and needed in Santa Ana. Rents range from $741 for a two-bedroom apartment to $1,984 for a four-bedroom apartment. Half of the units are reserved for extremely low-income households earning 30% of the Area Median Income.

“First Street Apartments will improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable members in our community while revitalizing a major corridor into the city,” Mayor Pro Tem Juan Villegas said.

Councilmember David Penaloza added: “First Street Apartments serves as a testament to Santa Ana’s commitment to provide quality affordable housing for local families.”

Residents in the project were chosen through a lottery process that had over 1,100 applications. The deadline to apply has passed and the building is fully occupied.

“Before living at First Street Apartments, I found myself struggling financially to pay rent,” said Diana Huaynate, 32, who has three sons. “I was living paycheck to paycheck, even sometimes that was not enough.”

Ms. Huaynate, who was born and raised in Sana Ana, said she’s seen the city’s rent prices skyrocket.

“I am happy and blessed to be a resident at First Street Apartments,” she said. “Not only is the rent manageable, but it offered me and my kids a space of our own; the property is so nice, it has its own park, laundry facilities, bike storage for my sons’ bikes, and they offer social services and lots more amenities that you wouldn’t have unless you paid a lot in rent.”

First Street Apartment is unique in that it will serve large families with contemporary living features that include balconies and patios, parking garages, and modern bathrooms and kitchens. The outdoor community features include an open courtyard with seating areas for residents, a barbeque area, a tot lot for children to play and a community garden.

The community consists of six residential buildings and a community laundry facility. Residents have access to a community room and a computer lab that provides space for educational and social services for residents. Social services include adult education and health services such as computer training, job training, English-as-a-second language classes, nutrition programs and parenting classes.

Rebusiness Online “AMCAL Equities Breaks Ground on 750-Bed Student Housing Community Near California State University, Sacramento”

Artist's rendering of apartment buildings and pool

POSTED ON JANUARY 30, 2017 BY NELLIE DAY IN CALIFORNIA

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — AMCAL Equities LLC has closed financing for and broken ground on The Crossings, a 750-bed student housing community located near the California State University, Sacramento campus.

The $75 million community is being built within the Sacramento Center for Innovation, an area that has been designated by the city to foster the exchange of technical knowledge and expertise between students, faculty, innovative businesses and technology companies. The project will include an 11,000-square-foot Center for Innovation, to be used by students and faculty.

Community amenities will include fully furnished units, a 14,800-square-foot clubhouse with an outdoor basketball court and a resort-style swimming pool. The developers received $22.5 million in funding from Anchor Real Estate Capital, and a $50 million construction loan from JPMorgan Chase.

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