Developers brief Buena Vista trustees on Midland Apartments financing, deed restrictions and construction timeline

Developers for the Midland Apartments gave the Buena Vista Board of Trustees a work-session briefing March 25 on the nine-year project’s history, financing and affordability restrictions, saying project funding shaped who the complex can serve and when it can open.

The presentation, led by Scott Simmons of Tributary, reviewed the project timeline from initial rezoning in 2016 through entitlements and the town’s adoption of affordability covenants in July 2023. “I think this has been a long process,” Simmons said, adding the development team wanted trustees and staff to be up to date on the capital stack, deed restrictions and next steps.

Why it matters: trustees and residents have pressed town staff and the developer about rents at the Midland and which households the building serves. The developer said the project was capitalized to serve “attainable” or middle-income households rather than the lowest-income brackets, because the available state and federal subsidy programs (and their timelines) dictated the feasible capital mix.

Most important facts: The developers said total project costs for the apartments plus the separate town-owned childcare building are about $18 million. The funding package included roughly $3 million in state grants administered by the Colorado Department of Housing (two programs referenced as an IHOY grant and a TAG grant), a CHFA (Colorado Housing and Finance Authority) loan, and a senior construction loan from Collegiate Peaks Bank. The developers reported roughly $11 million in total debt at the time of the briefing and that equity partners were accepting below-market returns to fill the capital stack.

Deed restrictions and rents: Trustees were shown the…