Title
Collaboration Opportunity between the City of Gainesville and the Gainesville Housing Authority (B)
Explanation
Over the past three months, the Gainesville Housing Authority and the City of Gainesville have worked together to develop a potential template for incorporating new affordable housing units within redevelopment projects in the City of Gainesville. Lincoln Ventures, LLC., a residential and commercial real estate firm, is currently working on a new mixed-use, mixed-income building adjacent to the University of Florida. Through ongoing collaboration between the three entities, the new building being built by Lincoln Ventures will include:
• 15 two-bedroom units that will be offered to qualified tenants drawn from GHA’s list of families already waiting for housing.
• The units will be affordable to tenants earning from fifty percent (50%) up to eighty percent (80%) of Area Median Income for Alachua County.
• The units will remain affordable at the same levels for the life of the building.
• The units will be identical to the market rate units and residents will have the same access to amenities and fitness facilities in the project.
• The partnership between GHA and Lincoln Ventures is memorialized in a signed Memorandum of Understanding between both entities and will become a part of the zoning of the project.
This project is an example of how collaboration between the City, GHA, and new market-rate housing construction can leverage the strength and resources of each partner to create an opportunity that is only possible through innovation and partnership and may be replicated in other projects.
Fiscal Note
None
Recommendation
Hear a brief presentation by GHA and City staff.