On October 21, 2013, City Council approved a HOME Deferred Loan between the City and Timber Sound II, Ltd for Phase I of a multi-family rental rehabilitation project at the Timber Sound Apartments, a 160 unit, mixed income community located at 4897 Raleigh Street, Orlando, FL 32811.When the project was first presented to City Council and the Housing Review Committee, it was made known that the project was to be divided into two phases.  Phase I consisted in the rehabilitation of 80 units.  Timber Sound rehabilitated five (5) units and the City provided HOME funds in the amount of $681,000 for the rehabilitation of the remaining 75 units. Phase I was completed in June, 2014 and all 80 units are currently occupied. City staff is now requesting Council’s approval to amend the original agreement to include Phase II.

Phase II will consist of the rehabilitation of the remaining 80 unit, as well as site improvement.  The total project cost for Phase II is $790,900.  Of this total, the City will provide $710,900 in HOME funding with the balance funded by the developer. Timber Sound has agreed to work with the City to house chronically homeless persons as units become available and as long as potential applicants meet the rental criteria.

Housing and Community Development Staff have worked with the City’s Legal office to amend the existing HOME Deferred Loan Agreement, as well as all recorded documents to include the 80 additional units for Phase II, the additional $710,900 in HOME funding, and the new HOME Rule requirements recently adopted by HUD.  A five (5) year affordability period will begin upon completion of all 160 units and a restrictive covenant will be recorded in the Orange County Public Records to ensure the units remain affordable during the 5 year period.  

Timber Sound Apartments was built in 1998 with low income housing tax credits. The City assisted in the original construction of the development providing affordable housing incentives such as expedited permitting and impact fee reductions. The current assessed value of the entire development is $3,654,248.  The City's total investment in this project is $1,391,900 which averages out to be $8,699 per unit.  There is currently a first mortgage on this property in the amount of $2,310,366.  The City will be in a second position. Based on the financing of this project, if the owner defaults and the property has to be liquidated to repay all of the funding sources, it is unlikely that the City will be able to recover its investment from the sale of the property.