Lancaster Pollard helps health care, senior living, affordable housing and private education organizations expand and improve their services by providing financial advice and financing solutions. Lancaster Pollard’s services enable hospitals, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, rural housing properties and private schools to develop the financial plans and secure the funding necessary to continue to serve their communities and lets them focus on what’s truly important –their residents, their patients, and their students.
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Home > News > Press Archive > 05-04-06 Georgia Refinance

Refinance funds new appliances, new roofs for low-income seniors
ATLANTA (May 4, 2006) – A subsidized senior apartment community in Georgia will save thousands in interest payments and upgrade its living spaces with a $1.7 million refinance provided today by Lancaster Pollard.

Swainsboro Presbyterian Apartments in rural east Georgia was built in 1984 and was the first affordable senior housing community in the city. Today’s refinance reduces the community’s 9.25 percent interest rate by more than three points, cutting interest payments by $20,000 each year. The refinance also funds $287,000 in repairs that had until now been drawn from the operating budget. The complex was at the point where it could no longer pay for repairs to the original, patched roof and other items, having drawn down its replacement reserve. “We couldn’t afford doing all that work on our own,” treasurer Nettie Drew said.

Swainsboro Presbyterian is 100 percent Section 8 assisted and serves extremely low-income seniors. It has an active waiting list and is a well-maintained property with such features as patios and a community center. The refinance funds a new roof as well as new stoves, refrigerators, carpets and air conditioners in each of the 50 units. It also provides the owner with a $40,000 developer’s fee. 

 “This is a great example of how the changes the government made to underwriting affordable senior living properties are supposed to work,” said Gerald M. Swiacki, senior vice president and regional manager of Lancaster Pollard’s southeast office. “Swainsboro will be able to fund improvements because it acted quickly while interest rates remain low.”

Lancaster Pollard structured the refinancing and underwrote the loan, which is insured by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and fixed at a low interest rate for 35 years.

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