NEWS

Tag: affordable housing

AMCAL Named 6th Top Affordable Housing Developer

Las Ventanas apartments playground area with children and adult

Affordable Housing Finance Magazine published its top 50 affordable housing developers list in May 2021, and AMCAL came in at #6 in the nation having 1,514 construction starts in 2020, and an anticipated 687 completions.

According to AHF, affordable housing developers were able to continue building, despite all the uncertainties and disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. AMCAL was one of them. AHF also reported that while posting impressive numbers, developers faced extraordinary challenges during the pandemic, from delays in construction to increased deal scrutiny, from all-time high lumber prices to rent delinquencies across their portfolios. In addition, they were called on to meet the increasing needs of their residents.

AMCAL is proud to have been building affordable housing for more than 40 years, and is still going strong with an impressive pipeline of projects under construction and under development in 2022.

Push For Affordable Housing On MTS Land Showing Results

San Diego trolley photo

Our Villa Encantada project in San Diego was mentioned in this article about transit-oriented developments.

MTS officials recently authorized negotiations with a development team seeking to build affordable housing on an underutilized trolley station parking lot. If approved, the proposal would more than triple the number of middle-income homes approved in San Diego since 2010.

This comes less than six months after MTS updated its real estate policy to encourage more housing near transit stations—an effort that appears to be showing some results.

The plan for the Palm Avenue station parking lot came from National Core, a nonprofit affordable housing developer, and Malick infill, a for-profit firm specializing in transit-oriented development. The team is proposing 150 homes for low-income households and 100 homes for middle-income households, along with retail and commercial space and parking for trolley passengers.

The MTS executive committee voted March 14 to start negotiations with the development team, after a 30-day window in which staff sought competing proposals but received none. The development team declined an interview request while negotiations are ongoing.

Passion for Housing

Photo of Percy Vaz

AMCAL CEO Percy Vaz is featured in the current edition of Affordable Housing Finance Magazine in an article titled “Passion for Housing.”

Brick by brick and town to town, the AMCAL group of companies does the hard work of building affordable and market-rate housing throughout California and Texas.

During its 40 years, the firm has developed more than 80 communities with 7,500 units and an equally impressive reputation for creating quality housing for families, seniors, and, more recently, college students.

Not bad for a company that Percival Vaz and his wife, Lux, began in their garage.

Armed with an entrepreneurial spirit, Vaz, the firm’s founder and CEO, emigrated to California from India in the mid-1960s to study electronics, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of California at Los Angeles, with the idea of returning to his home country to open an electronics assembly plant.

This article originally appeared in Affordable Housing Finance Magazine. Read more of the article on that website.

Alton Park Nears Completion in Fort Worth

Alton Park apartments leasing center

AMTEX Development’s newest community in Fort Worth, Texas, is nearing completion.

Fort Worth Housing Solutions will celebrate its 80th anniversary this year with the grand opening of its newest multi-family affordable property, Alton Park, in northwest Fort Worth.

Alton Park joins four other mixed-income apartment communities opening this year thanks to the housing authority’s aggressive efforts to expand the supply of affordable housing in Fort Worth.

“We are happy to be working with both the city and a few select developers to deliver high-quality, affordable housing options for the residents of our rapidly growing city,” Mary-Margaret Lemons, the housing authority’s president, said in a news release. “Never in our 80 years of history have public/private partnerships been so critical to fulfilling our mission.

This article originally appeared in Fort Worth Business Press. Visit that news site to read more.

AMTEX Completes Parkdale Villas in Denison, Texas

Parkdale Villas pool area

AMTEX completed its newest project, Parkdale Villas, in Denison, Texas, and has been featured in the Herald-Democrat newspaper.

Parkdale Villas brings low-income housing to Denison

A new 144 unit apartment facility bringing low income housing to Denison opened earlier in the month.

The apartments utilize a new tax incentive to provide low income housing instead of relying on federal government programs, and according to the developer are already nearly rented out. Darin Hansen, vice president of forward planning and entitlements for Amtex Development, the developer of the property, said he was excited to bring these low-cost apartments to the city of Denison.

AMCAL Serves as Title Sponsor for the California Housing Consortium’s Policy Forum & Housing Hall of Fame Awards

Group shot of Percy Vaz, Dana Mayo, Mary Kaiser and Lux Vaz
AMCAL was proud to serve as the title sponsor for the 2018 California Housing Consortium’s Policy Forum & Housing Hall of Fame Awards in Santa Monica on May 11, 2018. It was wonderful for us to connect with friends and colleagues–old and new. Here was a great moment during the festivities with (L to R): Percy Vaz, Dana Mayo, Mary Kaiser and Lux Vaz.

CHC’s 2018 program featured an interactive federal policy discussion, an insightful look into the Terner Center on Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley’s LIHTC Resident Survey findings, a 2017/2018 California legislative update by two housing champions from the California Assembly and a thoughtful keynote speech from United States Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho.

The day started with a federal policy update from by David Gasson from Boston Capital. David spoke of tax reform, the Omnibus and a Congress in flux, covering what has happened recently and what lies ahead for federal affordable housing policy.

Carolina Reid from the Terner Center on Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley presented findings from their LIHTC Resident Survey, titled ‘Why Affordable Housing Works For Those We Serve.’ She shared how LIHTC promotes housing stability, economic mobility and improved educational outcomes for children.

This year’s honorees were:

Public Sector – U.S. Senator Mike Crapo, Assemblymember Richard Bloom, Assemblymember David Chiu

Non-Profit Sector – Cesar Covarrubias, The Kennedy Commission

For-Profit Sector – Michael Costa, Highridge Costa Companies

Lifetime Achievement – Mary Murtagh, EAH Housing

Thanks to all who attended and congratulations to those who were honored.

New York Times mentions AMCAL’s Meridian community in affordable housing article

Meridan apartments exterior building
New York Times reporter Emily Badger featured information in her recent article about the national affordable housing crisis. AMCAL’s Meridian community in Koreatown in Los Angeles received a mention.

SAN FRANCISCO — For $1,200 a month, Patricia Torres and her family were renting a bedroom, a share of time in the bathroom, one vegetable drawer and one shelf in the fridge, and two cupboards over the stove. They rented not so much a home as a fraction of one.

Karen Calderon had even less: a single room in a homeless shelter where she was not allowed so much as a hot plate to cook for her family.

The article originally appeared in the New York Times. Visit that news site to read the entire article.

AMCAL’s Los Angeles – Florence Project is Featured

Artist's rendering of Florence Apartments

In unincorporated Florence, AMCAL Multi-Housing Company has proposed redeveloping a County library as part of a mixed-use affordable housing complex.

The project, slated for a one-acre site at 1600-1616 E. Florence Avenue, would create a five-story building featuring 116 units of senior affordable housing, as well as a replacement library at its ground floor.

VTBS Architects is designing the building, which would rise one block west of the Blue Line’s Florence Station.

The $51-million project is seeking approximately $7 million in County funding.

Read more of the article in Urbanize.la.

AMCAL Secures #7 Spot on List of Top 50 Affordable Housing Developers of 2017

Exterior photo of Meridian apartments

Rising to the 7th spot in this year’s Top 50 Affordable Housing Developers as ranked by Affordable Housing Finance Magazine, AMCAL Multi-Housing, Inc. boosts its 47th spot ranking from last year.

Read more here.

It still looks to be a glass-half-empty kind of year for affordable housing developers, writes Deputy Editor Donna Kimura, in her recent article “Cautious Optimism” in the April/May 2018 issue of Affordable Housing Finance magazine. Kimura goes on to write: They anticipate a better but tough road ahead in 2018. Even with the uncertainty of tax reform behind them, more than 48% of recently surveyed developers expect housing finance conditions to worsen by the end of the year. About 31% say conditions will improve, and 20% say they’ll be about the same.

Read more here.

Search

Archives

Calendar

April 2024
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930  

Categories

Recent Posts