Cypress Real Estate Advisors (CREA) has selected Nashville-based Holladay Ventures as its affordable housing partner for the RiverChase Apartments redevelopment project in the McFerrin Park neighborhood. CREA will sell 2.96 acres of the former RiverChase site to Holladay for the construction of 140 units of affordable housing along Joseph Avenue and Berry Street. The Holladay Ventures parcel will sit within a larger mixed-income, mixed-use community that will have a total of 1,150 residences, including 105 affordable units that will be built by CREA. The project is located at 301 North 2nd Street.
“We are thrilled to have Holladay Ventures as our partner and make progress on our promise to deliver affordable housing so that families who want to be in the urban core have a great place to live at an affordable price,” said CREA Development Manager Stephen Buchanan. “Evan Holladay and his team have a strong reputation for building high-quality affordable housing communities and providing creative solutions when problems arise. Their care forNashvillians and strong passion for bettering Nashville make them an ideal partner.
In all, the project will voluntarily deliver 245 affordable units – more than 20 percent of the overall residential program, and an increase from the 225 affordable units originally announced in November. The entire mixed-income community will be architecturally consistent across all the structures and diverse housing products. The site has been razed, and construction on both CREA’s first phase and all of Holladay’s project will begin in 2023 and is scheduled for completion by 2026. Here’s the quick rundown:
Development Rundown
Meridian Mixed-Use
- What’s Now: Riverchase Apartments
- What’s Next: Mixed-Use Development
- Overall Developer: CREA
- Architect: Hastings
- Landscape: Hawkins Partners
- Civil: Barge Cauthen & Associates
- Engineering: KCI Technologies
- Location: 301 North 2nd Street
- Nashville Council District: 5
Affordable/Attainable Housing Stats
- Developer: Holladay Ventures
- Capacity: 140 of 245 Affordable Units
- 24 units at 40 percent AMI.
- 92 units at 60 percent AMI
- 24 units at 80 percent AMI
Working closely with Councilman Sean Parker, Metro Planning, McFerrin Park Neighborhood Association and other stakeholders for more than 18 months, CREA developed a vision for redevelopment of RiverChase Apartments for a 1,150-unit community that provides Nashville with much-needed housing supply, including a voluntary commitment for 225 units at qualified affordable levels, and other features, including:
- A Community Benefits Agreement with The Urban League of Middle Tennessee that legally binds the affordability conditions for 30 years no matter who owns the property in the future.
- An unprecedented “housing navigator” program organized by the Salvation Army and People’s Alliance for Transit, Housing and Employment to help residents relocate from RiverChase to better quality housing in Nashville.
- A construction safety program including high quality jobsite safety and environmental standards and monitoring, including private funding for training, among other leading safety protocols including OSHA-10 and OSHA-30 requirements.
- Privately funded, bicycle-friendly streetscape improvements, as well as a financial partnership with the McFerrin Park Neighborhood Association that includes $40,000 to the neighborhood association and $100,000 towards neighborhood traffic calming.
The selection of Holladay Ventures follows a competitive request for qualifications (RFQ) process initiated in October by CREA to identify a housing partner with an established record of delivering high-quality affordable communities in Nashville. Prior to the RFQ process, CREA met with Nashville affordable housing and community stakeholders to ensure key RFQ objectives were achieved and best practices be considered in selecting a future partner. CREA also met with stakeholders following the process to review submissions and ensure the community has a seat at the table.
“We are thrilled to have Holladay Ventures as our partner and make progress on our promise to deliver affordable housing so that families who want to be in the urban core have a great place to live at an affordable price,” said CREA Development Manager Stephen Buchanan. “Evan Holladay and his team have a strong reputation for building high-quality affordable housing communities and providing creative solutions when problems arise. Their care forNashvillians and strong passion for bettering Nashville make them an ideal partner.
Holladay Ventures’ notable affordable and mixed-income community projects include Shelby House, a multi-phase 484-unit mixed-income housing development in East Nashville in partnership with Samaritan Recovery Community and Evergreen Real Estate; and Stone Bridge Lofts, a 311-unit affordably priced community backed by Amazon that will be built in Goodlettsville.
The CREA/Holladay partnership will activate the ‘legacy residents’ initiative proposed by CREA to provide former RiverChase residents who relocated to other housing to return, with vouchers accepted, once the development is complete.
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