At the 2024 ULI Housing Opportunity Conference, panelists discussed the topic of “Innovative Partnerships to Leverage Land for More Housing,” including strategies to add to local housing supplies by leveraging underutilized land owned by houses of worship and school districts.
Panel moderator Nina Janopaul, principal, Capital Strategies Consulting, observed: “Private developers partnering with nonprofit and public landowners can be challenging and time-consuming but unleashes an important resource.”
Carmen Romero, chief executive officer, Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH), explained how APAH partnered with American Legion Post 139 in Arlington, Virginia, to redevelop an aging 1950s-era facility on 1.3-acres (0.53 ha) in a prime, transit-oriented location in greater Washington, D.C.
Post 139 selected APAH in 2016 to redevelop its site close to the Virginia Square-GMU Metrorail station. The $77 million redevelopment project opened in 2022 as Lucille & Bruce Terwilliger Place, a mixed-use building with 160 affordable rental apartments, community spaces, and a new 6,000-square-foot (557.41 sq m) facility for Post 139. Fifty percent of the apartments have a veteran preference.
With a project timeline that spanned the recent pandemic, Romero said, “It takes a ton of time. You have to have a strong foundation in your partnership to withstand this kind of turbulence and what could happen.” She noted, “We were able to deliver exactly what we set out to do.”
Jeremy Striffler, director of real estate, Austin Independent School District, shared the district’s efforts since 2019 to repurpose underutilized district properties. AISD serves more than 73,000 students in Austin, Texas. Striffler oversees the district’s portfolio of 135 facilities and over 2,200 acres (890.3 ha) of land, including the Anita Ferrales Coy Facility, home to the district’s Alternative Learning Center and located on a site of nearly 18 acres (7.3 ha) in East Austin.
Striffler said, “We always start with community engagement. We asked teachers and staff, what do they need? How can repurposing this land respond to those needs?” A major priority that emerged was housing to support hiring and retention for district employees, who are often priced out of the city’s expensive housing market.
The plan for the Coy site: to make the district-owned land available through a long-term ground lease; add 519 mixed-income rental units that are affordable for teachers, district staff, and families; and renovate the Alternative Learning Center. In November 2023, the AISD Board of Trustees approved an agreement for the Coy site with NRP Group, an experienced developer of market rate and affordable housing.
Christopher Kennedy is founding partner of Emmaus Projects, a firm that helps nonprofits monetize their real estate to support their missions. He talked about redevelopment of land owned by the St. Austin Catholic Parish and School in central Austin, near the University of Texas campus.
Kennedy reported that church leaders told him, “St. Austin has been at this location 116 years. Will we be here the next 100 years or not? We need to focus on the things that are important to us.”
To finance the construction of a new, $44 million school and ministry building and offer the parish and diocese a revenue stream for decades to come, St. Austin entered a ground lease for an acre of its campus with Greystar, a global real estate company. Union on San Antonio, Greystar’s $100-plus million, 29-story, 423-unit housing tower on the site, will open in Fall 2024.
David Bowers, vice president, Mid-Atlantic Market and senior advisor, Faith-Based Development Initiative (FBDI) for Enterprise Community Partners, presented on FBDI’s role working with houses of worship (HOW) to build affordable housing on underdeveloped land they own. Since 2006, FBDI has supported HOWs with grant funding and access to Enterprise capital products, training to navigate the development process, technical assistance to help them connect to resources, peer learning opportunities, and access to real estate development experts. Bowers commented, “The Catholic Church is the largest non-governmental organization landowner in the world. FBDI helps folks see how they can partner in a way that has mission impact.”
