Aries Capital Arranges Historic Tax Credit Equity for Chicago Student Housing Development

Aries Capital is pleased to announce that Chairman and CEO Neil Freeman has arranged approximately $10 million of historic tax credit financing on behalf of the borrower, Campus Acquisitions. The historic tax credit investment represents a significant portion of the required equity and will be used to fund the redevelopment and conversion of 20-28 E. Jackson Boulevard into student housing. The renovation and adaptive reuse project will convert 20-28 E. Jackson, the Gibbons and Steger buildings, into 194,000 square feet of new student housing. The development will feature 135-units with 483 beds and 10,500 square feet of ground level retail.

Located across the street from DePaul University’s business school, the new housing will cater to DePaul students as well as students from Chicago’s many other universities and colleges.

“Downtown Chicago is home to one of the largest collections of college campuses in the nation including DePaul University, Roosevelt University, Columbia College, the Art Institute, and Loyola University among others,” said JJ Smith, Executive Vice President of Development for Campus Acquisitions. “The site’s proximity to a large student base, along with the property’s eligibility to benefit from historic tax credits made it an attractive project for our firm. Because it marked our first historic renovation project, we relied on Aries Capital’s tax credit expertise and lender relationships to help us navigate this complex process. We were extremely pleased with the results.”

The Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives program encourages private sector investment in the rehabilitation and re-use of historic buildings. It creates jobs and is one of the nation’s most successful and cost-effective community revitalization programs. It has leveraged over $62 billion in private investment to preserve 38,000 historic properties since 1976. Aries Capital and its affiliate Urban Development Fund have completed more than $1 billion in projects utilizing historic tax credits throughout the country.

“Given the outstanding reputation of Campus Acquisitions and the great urban location of this property, we were able to secure more than 50% of the required equity through historic tax credits (HTCs) which provides low cost equity capital for the Borrower,” said Freeman of Aries Capital. “The funding of HTCs will drastically improve the IRR for the developer and the equity partner, and preserve two beautiful historic buildings.”

Construction on the new student housing development has begun and the anticipated completion date is August 2014. Linn-Mathes Inc. is the general contractor for the development and Pappageorge Haymes, Ltd. is providing the architectural services.

About Campus Acquisitions: Campus Acquisitions is one of the nation’s fastest growing, premier developers, owners, and managers of student housing with the successful development and acquisition of over 10,000 beds in 16 university markets. The firm has maintained a dedicated focus on acquiring, developing and redeveloping high-quality student housing properties with a well-calculated strategy of investing in targeted university communities. To date, Campus Acquisitions has acquired or developed approximately $1,200,000,000 of student housing assets. Campus Acquisitions has operated student housing properties in the following markets: the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana; Iowa State University in Ames; the University of Texas in Austin; the University of Georgia in Athens; the University of South Carolina in Columbia; Arizona State University in Tempe; Purdue University in West Lafayette; the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles; Baylor University in Waco; Texas State University in San Marcos; and the University of California at Santa Barbara. Campus Acquisitions is currently developing another 5,000 beds at 8 campuses for delivery in Fall 2014 as well.

Share:

See if Your Project is Eligible