Project Name: Aria Family Apartments Project Address: 5274 Decatur Street, Denver CO 80221 I. Project Characteristics: Aria Family Apartments (Aria Family) is a proposed 65-unit apartment complex located at 5274 Decatur in Denver. Aria Family will serve families earning 30% -60% AMI. 18 of the Units will be set aside for families with incomes of 30% AMI. The Apartments have been designed to exceed Enterprise Green Communities. Aria Family will be developed by Perry Rose (PRCo), the Denver office of Jonathan Rose Companies (JRCO), one of the nation’s best and most sustainable affordable housing developers. Bank of America will provide construction and permanent financing and will purchase the Federal LIHTC Equity. The Aria Family site is part of Phase 3 of the redevelopment of the former Marycrest Convent Campus, now called Aria Denver. It is in the Chaffee Park Neighborhood (Census Tract 2.01) and is in a NSP 2 Target Area. In 2012, City Council designated the Aria site as an Urban Renewal District. Phase 1 of Aria Denver was completed in 2013 and consists of 72-unit Aria LIHTC Apartments and 13 Townhomes. Plans for Phase 2, have been submitted for building permit and scheduled for construction in July of 2016. Phase 2 will consist of 13 townhomes, 6 rowhomes and 28 condos (co-housing with 8 affordable). Aria Denver is a centrally located mixed-use community. Aria is located on a 17-acre infill site. The place making design and diversity of Aria reflects the heritage of the Sisters’ commitment to social and environmental stewardship and community building. Aria Denver focuses on opportunities for a healthy, active, life-long learning lifestyle. Aria is across the street from Regis University, 4 blocks from I-70, 8 blocks from a new Gold Line Station opening in 2016 and 10 minutes from downtown. The location demonstrates Aria’s environmental responsibility. Aria Denver is distinguished by its diversity of housing types. The housing types will include townhomes, condominiums, co-housing, market rate and affordable apartments. The first “pocket neighborhood” in Denver will be developed in this community where smaller, more affordable, townhomes will be built around a central green. 14 of the pocket units will be set aside to meet Aria’s IHO requirement. At full build out Aria will consist of 400 housing units, linked by pedestrian friendly streets, open spaces and 30,000 square feet of neighborhood serving commercial shops. A Purchase and Sale Agreement has been executed between Marycrest Land and a local commercial developer to purchase the commercial site at the corner of Federal and 52nd. The developer is in discussions with two grocers and a coffee shop. The open space will have community gardens that will provide healthy homegrown produce to the Aria Family residents. A portion of the open space, completed in 2015, is a model fresh food production garden that provides locally grown produce to Regis and to a farm stand that sells the produce on a “pay what you can” basis to low-income residents. In July of 2014, a partnership of Regis University, Perry Rose, Urban Ventures and Chaffee Park were awarded a $1 million grant from the Colorado Health Foundation to fund the “Cultivate Health Initiative” (CHI). This grant is designed to improve conditions in the Chaffee Park, which is currently designated a “health care and food desert” and will directly benefit Aria Family residents. The goal of CHI is to support the wellness of residents in a multi-generational, mixed-income, mixed-use, pedestrian friendly community by promoting active lifestyles, access to healthy food and serving as a community laboratory for the future. CHI has developed a one-acre production farm to provide healthy food to neighborhood residents. CHI will also include: 52nd and Federal intersection improvements, sidewalk, landscape, pedestrian lighting and way-finding improvements along 52nd connecting Aria to: Regis, Zuni Park and Beach Court Elementary School. CHI will provide ADA and Adult Fitness Zones in the Aria community park (100 feet from Aria Family) and at Zuni Park. CHI will provide bicycle racks and bike paths. The character of the Aria community and the interaction among Aria Family residents and the rest of the Aria CHI programs will engage the residents in a vitally active, holistic life style that will improve their wellbeing and physical and mental health. Aria Family will provide low and moderate-income families an opportunity to live in a mixed-income health oriented new community. These factors will allow Aria Family to increase the quality of life for low-income families by reducing housing, transportation, food and health costs. Reducing these costs could save $6,000 per year and can make the difference between having enough income so the family does not have to make the choice of paying rent, or buying groceries. II. Why Project Should Be Selected Above Others: LIHTC approval of Aria Family in 2016 is absolutely essential to the viability of the Marycrest Urban Renewal District. Each year that the Aria LIHTC is not approved, infrastructure costs go up and it becomes more difficult to meet the schedule for generating TIF revenues required by the redevelopment agreement. Approval of Aria Family’s 9% allocation is critical to maintain the momentum of the $85 million Urban Renewal project. Phase 2 of Aria Denver is already underway including 28 co-housing condominiums, 13 Town Houses and 6 rowhomes (See news article in Exhibit 1). If Aria Family is not approved in 2016, the success of Aria Denver will be set back. Therefore, it should be approved above others that are not in urban renewal districts. Aria Family should be selected above other projects on the Federal Corridor. Recently, the Federal Corridor (from 52nd to 72nd Avenue) was selected by ULI and Denver Planning and Public Works Offices as a model for the development of healthy, safe economically viable urban corridors. Aria Denver is a key node in this corridor and Aria’s momentum needs to be maintained if the corridor is to continue to revitalize economically. If Aria is delayed, other nodes in the corridor will have more difficulty. Planned Community: Aria Family is a key component of a planned mixed-income community redevelopment strategy for the Chaffee Park/Regis Neighborhoods. It is not just a single affordable apartment building. Aria Family will act as a catalyst for over 300 other housing units. Singular apartment building applications will have less impact on the surrounding neighborhoods and will leverage less public and private resources than planned community projects, like Aria. Aria Family implements and is consistent with the Mayor’s 2015 Denver Housing Plan. Aria Family ranks high in meeting the housing priorities included in “Housing Denver: A five-year plan – 2015-2019” and is one of Denver’s top ranked LIHTC projects. These priorities include: “Priority 5: Increase Housing Diversity. Aria is a diverse mixed-use, mixed-income community including for-sale units, market rate units, affordable units; Priority 6: Preserve Workforce and Critical Needs Housing. Aria Family provides housing for workforce families earning 30%-60% AMI; and Priority 8: Encourage Sustainable Housing Development. 2 Strong, Experienced Development Team: Aria will be developed, financed, built and leased by the same successful experienced team that completed the Phase 1 Aria Apartments and that developed the Trocadero and Cottage Hill Apartments. The Team of Perry Rose, OZ Architecture, Palace Construction and Rose Companies Management have completed 3 other LIHTC projects in Denver and have worked together for over 15 years. JRCo is one of the nation’s leading green affordable housing developers. Success of the Phase 1 Aria Apartments and Proven Market Demand: The Aria Family market area has significant unmet demand for affordable housing. The Phase 1 Aria Apartments was fully leased in 90 days, and now has a waiting list of over 900 individuals, showing that this market area and this planned community has more unmet demand and a higher probability of filling this demand than other projects. Aria Family has a capture rate of 6.8%, which is highly attainable in a PMA with an overall vacancy rate of 2%, and multiple properties with wait lists. Significant Leveraging of Private Investment: Aria Family Apartments will serve as the next step in catalyzing a total project with an estimated value of approximately $85 Million. Subtracting $15 Million for Phase 1 that is now complete, there is another $70 Million of redevelopment to be built on the Aria Denver Site. That is, the $15 Million Aria Family Apartments LIHTC project will help to create an additional $55 Million of private development for a leverage ratio of approximately 4 to 1 of other private and public investment for the $13 Million 9% LIHTC allocation. No other LIHTC allocation proposal will create this magnitude of increased private investment, the economic spin-off of additional construction and permanent jobs. Strong Support from the City of Denver: Aria Family has strong support from the City as evidenced by Council’s approval of TIF financing and the 2011 approval by Denver OED for a $5M NSP/Skyline Loan to help fund infrastructure improvements for Phase 1. Denver has also named Aria/Chaffee Park as 1 of 2 pilot “Sustainable Neighborhoods” designated by the Office of Sustainability. Aria’s 2015 9% LIHTC application was ranked by the City as OED’s second highest priority project. Letters of support from Denver OED and Colorado DOH are included. Proximity to Transit: Aria Family is 2/3rd of a mile from the 60th and Federal, Gold Line Station. Healthy Living: Aria Family is in a community that has an integrated approach to health.