Ribbon Cut on 92 Affordable Apartments on N. Volusia Street, Eight Years After the Idea

City, county and nonprofit leaders cut the ribbon Tuesday on the Village of New Augustine, a 92-unit affordable apartment community at 280 N. Volusia St. in West St. Augustine, where rents start at about $634 a month. It is the first project in St. Johns County for Jacksonville-based Ability Housing, and it lands in a city where the people who staff downtown restaurants, hotels and shops have largely been priced into commuting from somewhere else.

Every unit is reserved for households earning up to 60% of the area median income, using annual figures from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Rent depends on household size and unit type, running from roughly $634 for a one-bedroom to $1,599 for a three-bedroom.

The community is four three-story buildings: 20 one-bedrooms, 36 two-bedrooms and 36 three-bedrooms. Seven of the units are built to Americans with Disabilities Act accommodations. There is a gym, a community center with the leasing office, a computer lab and a library, flexible meeting space, a pavilion, a walking trail and surface parking.

It is not full. As of the ribbon-cutting, the property was 30% to 40% leased, which means most of the 92 apartments were still available.

Eight years from idea to keys

The concept and the site date to 2018, when the West Augustine Historical Community Development Corporation and Ability Housing began working together. Then came the slow part: acquiring the land, working out utility and infrastructure agreements with the city of St. Augustine and St. Johns County, and assembling the financing. Construction itself took about two and a half years.

Ability Housing CEO Reggie Fullwood said the development grew out of a vision for a better West St. Augustine, with housing stable enough that families stay. He also made the geographic point directly: service workers in a tourism economy usually have to live far from the jobs, and this site is close enough to walk or bike.

Who paid for it

The project came in at $26.5 million, stacked from state, local and private money.

Source	Amount
Bank of America construction loan	$14,227,317
National Equity Fund equity (Bank of America investor)	$14,867,263
Churchill Stateside permanent mortgage	$5.37 million
Florida Housing loan	$4,265,345
Florida Housing tax credits	$1.625 million
St. Johns County ARPA funds	$1,207,134
Florida Housing predevelopment loan to West Augustine CDC	$724,350
St. Johns County affordable housing grant	$460,000

The pieces overlap rather than simply add up. The construction loan was replaced by permanent financing once the buildings were finished, and the tax credit award is what made the large equity investment possible.

Local taxpayers are in for $1.67 million between the county grant and the American Rescue Plan Act award. St. Johns County commissioners also gave the project a break on timing: in 2022 the board approved an ordinance letting developers defer impact fees, which cut the cash needed up front while construction prices were swinging.

Joe Cone, the county's assistant director for health and human services, said the development is a model for balancing immediate needs with longer-term support, and that families moving in will be surrounded by organizations able to connect them with programs and resources.

Programs on site

Ability Housing plans voluntary resident programs with local partners, including adult literacy classes, employment assistance and personal finance workshops. Participation is not a condition of the lease.

Bradley Construction Co. built it. Group 4 Design was the architect and JBPro handled civil engineering.

Leasing continues at the community center on North Volusia Street, and income eligibility is checked against HUD's annual limits for St. Johns County, so the household size matters as much as the paycheck. Details on availability and applications are posted by the developer at abilityhousing.org. Ability Housing has two more communities in the pipeline north of here, but nothing else announced in St. Johns County.

More on housing, growth and local government at St. Augustine Community Website. Read more development coverage in our Business & Development section, or catch up on Community news. Have thoughts on what this means for West Augustine? Join the conversation in our Community Forum.

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