ATLANTA (Sept. 15, 2006) – Six southern Florida affordable senior housing communities will repair roofs, clean up hurricane damage and make other repairs with funds provided through Lancaster Pollard refinances. The transactions further an integral part of Catholic Health Services’ mission to provide housing in one of the highest-rent areas in the country.
“We’re going beyond the minimum requirements of the HUD code in order to make the residents’ lives more amenable,” spokeswoman Maria Miranda said. Catholic Health Services will perform various repairs and upgrades at each property, including replacing or repairing roofs, cleaning up storm debris from Hurricane Wilma, and upgrading some of the units with new flooring, windows, showers and appliances. New elevator generators will assure residents can get home or leave the building during a power outage. Together, up to 1,500 residents in 665 units will benefit at St. Mary’s Towers, St. Joseph Towers, Archbishop Hurley Hall, Archbishop McCarthy Residence, Palmer House and Stella Maris House.
The improvements, particularly the elevator generators and landscaping, would not have been possible without refinancing, Vice President of Finance Mary Jo Frick said. “It’s something that HUD wanted us to do, but the reserves are limited. Doing this refinancing actually gives us the reserves to set aside for that.”
The refinancings total $31.6 million, providing more than $2.7 million for immediate repairs and $2.6 million deposited to replacement reserves for future projects. They affect half of Catholic Health Services’ growing affordable senior housing inventory.
“Each property’s new interest rate was reduced by at least 3 percentage points, and this was a huge financial success for them,” said Gerald M. Swiacki, Lancaster Pollard senior vice president and southeast regional manager.
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