Buchanan Gardens Celebrates Grand (Re)Opening

The newly renovated Buchanan Gardens in Arlington celebrated a grand opening yesterday, after an 18-month, $32 million renovation by low income housing provider Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing.

"Buchanan Gardens was built as a state-of-the-art garden apartment community for the post-war boom in 1949," said Nina Janopaul, APAH President/CEO.  “It housed generations of families in its original condition.  With APAH’s extensive renovation we have modernized this 111-unit, 100% affordable property to 21st century standards and created committed affordable homes for the next sixty years.”

The rejuvenated development now boasts three-bedroom family units, a dozen barrier-free units, a community room, and a new playground.  Designed by Wiencek + Associates and constructed by Hamel Builders, the new Buchanan Gardens follows EarthCraft Virginia guidelines and features energy efficient roofs, windows, insulation, low flow toilets, and Energy Star appliances.  There's also a new stormwater management system and rain gardens, as well as new tree plantings.

Units will be made available to families making 60% or less of AMI, which works out to about $64,000 for a family of four.  The renovations, which broke ground in April 2011, were funded jointly by the Virginia Housing Development Authority, the Arlington Housing Investment Fund, Low Income Housing Tax Credits, and grants from the Capital One Foundation and the Freddie Mac Foundation.

APAH, a leading developer of affordable housing along Columbia Pike, acquired Buchanan Gardens in 2009.

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Arlington Mill Ready to Build

Demolition of the community center on Arlington's Columbia Pike is slated in the next two weeks to make way for Arlington Mill, a community center, garage and a low-rise affordable housing complex. "We're just waiting for our electricity to be rewired and then we can get started," said George May, Construction Bureau Chief of Arlington County.

The first phase of the project has a projected cost of 24 to 25 million dollars to build a new community center with a gym, learning center, public plaza and garage, designed by Davis Carter Scott. Residences on the north side developed by Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) and designed by Kishimoto Gordon Dalaya Architecture (KGD) are scheduled to go under construction in 2012 with a targeted completion date of May 2013.

APAH will be applying for the Low Incoming Housing Tax Credit March 11th. The group is slated to build 122 subsidized residences in the second phase of the project, which starts after completion of the community center. In the original plans, 192 residences were to have been built, with 61 slated for affordable housing. Public Private Alliance was unable to secure financing for the market-rate apartments so the county went back to the drawing board in the planning stages, said Maureen Markham, Arlington County Development Specialist. "We had a couple of rough years for the housing market and funding, but things are looking up," she said.
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Church and Housing Provider Vindicated in Clarendon Case

A church's involvement in affordable housing subsidies by the state doesn't violate the Constitution. So says another court in the ongoing battle at The Views at Clarendon, which has cleared yet another legal hurdle in its battle to build an apartment building heavily subsidized by the government in place of the First Baptist Church of Clarendon. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit this week upheld a ruling, issued last May, that found that Arlington did not violate the state or U.S. constitutions by subsidizing the church-led project.

The struggle may finally wrap up 5 years of lawsuits 7 years after the Church hired the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) to advise on an affordable housing project. The Church later sold the land to The Views at Clarendon Corporation, a non-profit, for $5.6m, with plans to build 46 market-rate and 70 affordable apartments. The Church retained 3 of 7 seats on the board, and will retain two floors within the new structure and a small building on the side. That lead to a neighbor arguing in Peter Glassman v. Arlington County, et. al that the subsidy amounted to unconstitutional support to a church, an argument that has been repeatedly rejected by both state and federal courts.

The news is a relief for the housing provider, not least because it began construction on the project last January (tearing down) and has just now begun building the 10-story structure, and the courts have refused to enjoin construction. While the case could be appealed - back to the same appellate court or to the U.S. Supreme Court - "further appeals are unlikely to be successful" says Raighne Delaney, an attorney Shareholder with Bean, Kinney & Korman, a law firm representing the non-profit. With plaintiffs having exhausted all automatic appeals, further appeals would be heard only at the discretion of the court.

"The county got a great bargain here," said Delaney. The nature of the bargain was a $13.1m loan the county gave to the developer, for which it got 70 subsidized apartments, with the feds kicking in a $14.5m loan and $20m grant for the project thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. "Constitutionally, the only thing that mattered here was what the church got out of it. Even if it was a bad deal, the government is allowed to make bad deals," said Delaney, who stressed that the transaction is unbeatable for the county. Delaney said the real test is not whether the state is doing business with the church, but whether there is any "excessive entanglement" with the church. "The answer to that really is no. The state is not disallowed from doing business with the church, prohibiting regular business with the church would be a sort of anti-religious bigotry, and that's not allowed either."

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Clarendon: Urban Planners Taken with New View of Urban Churches

Late last year, the Views at Clarendon emerged unscathed from a cloud of lawsuits and officially kicked off construction. Now one of the region's more intriguing mixed-use projects is on schedule, and attracting national attention as a model for unique partnerships. The Views at Clarendon Corporation's mixed-use, mixed-income building will hold 70 affordable apartments and 46 market rate apartments, not so outstanding by itself, but that it was done through the auspices of the church is turning the heads of urban planners around the country.

As the First Baptist Church of Clarendon faced a budget shortfall a decade ago, it could have reacted in the typical fashion, selling out to a developer and moving to a cheaper, less urbanized community. That would have shut down the church's daycare center and local mission. Instead, the church chose to protect its historic building, stay local, keep the daycare center and double down on its mission by setting up a non-profit corporation to run an affordable housing project. First Baptist - now the Church at Clarendon - sold its air rights to the non-profit, of which it held 3 of 7 board seats, allowing the non-profit to cater to low-income and disabled residents, consistent with the church mission. Other urban churches have retained a portion of the new structure after selling its land, but the model of expanding its influence is a new one. Architect Michael Foster, a principal of Arlington's MTFA Architecture, thinks of this as a paradigm shift. "This has really been watched closely, and nationally, for mixing an existing church at the base of the building in this way. Most mixed-use is office-retail-residential. One that's dominated by public housing is not totally unprecedented, but as a land-use model, it helps us all think a little differently about preserving the role of churches and communities."

Not all the attention has been positive. Local groups tried to stop the in-fill project, then protested that Arlington's subsidies for the new non-profit Views at Clarendon constituted an Establishment Clause violation, and the organization found themselves twice in the chambers of the Virginia Supreme Court and several times the subject of Washington Post news fodder. Vindicated by the courts, the non-profit has now nearly finished excavating the site and underpinning the church, and expects to start building up by next month. The church "sandwich" will give them two floors as a condominium and a 3-floor building on the side, the non-profit will own the apartments above and the parking garage below.

Of the 70 affordable apartments, the majority will be priced at 60% AMI, six of the apartments will be 100% accessible (visitable and adaptable), 12 units will have "support of services" provided to those with disabilities, and six of them will be offered to families under 50% AMI. The church will continue to operate the 180-child daycare center, Arlington's largest, as well as expanding its urban ministry, all within a block of Metro. Foster, the project architect, thinks this will help churches remain active in the social fabric, and that the importance of this should not be underestimated. "This represents a dramatic change in how the church engages the community," and that planning organizations are taking note. "We've been getting many calls about this" says Foster, whose firm is also working on a similar type of project in Bethesda, with the church as developer rather than outgoing owner. The non-profit Views has hired Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) as a consultant to help them achieve their affordable housing vision.

The old steeple will remain the tallest structure, with the new building rising just below the steeple height by design. Foster says the building is meant to adapt a mid-rise to colonial architectural style. "The base of the building is designed to fit in with the colonial heritage with the church steeple and remaining school. Its not really meant to be pure colonial, and not meant to be neoclassical, but it does represent what remains on site and the compatibility with the adjacent neighborhood."

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County to Develop Arlington Mill Residences as Low Income Housing

As promised at the Arlington Mill Steering Committee meeting in September, during which details for the five-story, Davis Carter Scott-designed Community Center were presented to the public, Arlington County has selected Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) as the official developer of the residential portion of the Arlington Mill project. Groundbreaking on the Community Center is expected in early spring of next year, while construction on the 122-unit Arlington Mill Residences is expected to begin in June of 2012.

The low-rise apartment building, designed by local firm Kishimoto Gordon Dalaya Architecture (KGD) will offer six efficiency units, 18 one-bedroom units, 73 two-bedroom units, and 25 three-bedroom units. The entire building will be marketed as affordable housing, the majority of the apartments offered at 60% AMI, with a smaller portion (roughly a tenth) priced at 40% AMI. Developers boast that the design both complies with Columbia Pike Form Based Code and "will be constructed utilizing green building design and will be Earthcraft certified." Earthcraft offers a sustainability designation less rigorous than LEED certification. An open field for public use will provide ample green space for residents, and hoping to further encourage green transportation and exercise, developers designed the site with a direct link to the neighboring Four Mile Run park and bicycle trails.

Developers have projected the total cost at $30 million. To lighten the financial burden, APAH will seek financing from the Virginia Housing Development Authority (VHDA) through permanent mortgage financing and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. Paradigm Companies will serve as general contractor and property manager, Studio39 is slated to shoulder landscaping design duties, and VIKA will assist the team as civil engineers. Paradigm and APAH worked together with Arlington officials to complete the Parc Rosslyn affordable housing project in 2008.
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