Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Financing/Banks was: Still happening

[RJ Hirsch (heidinys]

This thread has been excellent,  and may be useful to folks in the future.  
However,  how will they find this info.  when searching for related Subject 
lines,  I would not know to search under 'Still...'  I wonder if there is a way 
to link this thread to Banks/mortgages/financing.  And perhaps we'll find ways 
to be attuned to the importance of Subject Lines in the Future.  Best,
Ruth Hirsch, Cantines Island, Saugerties,  NYS

Date: Mon, 27 Apr 2015 07:17:15 -0500 (CDT)
Michael Mariano <mike [at] schemataworkshop.com>
To: Cohousing-L mailing list <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ still happening...........

Regarding financing for our construction loan, as expected, we had to provide 
our operating agreement to our lender, which used the term cohousing 
throughout. We kicked ourselves at the time for having done that while feeling 
like we knew better, but it only stalled things for a few weeks while the 
bank's attorneys reviewed (at our cost) and we
clarified that none of what was said was intended to supersede the Fair Housing 
Act, and each resident signed a document indicating such.

We have educated both our bank and appraiser on the cohousing concept, and it 
did help to explain why anyone would design-develop-build such a thing.

In our case, we did not do individual mortgages, but instead we have 
collectively built a multifamily apartment building (opening in December) with 
street level commercial where each resident family is a shareholder of the 
ownership entity (an LLC), and rents back from the LLC while paying down the 
mortgage and building equity.

Our approach with the banks was that we were simply interested in financing a 
construction and perm loan for a nearly fully pre-leased apartment building. 
They liked this and saw it as fairly low risk. We like it because the 
collective ownership of the building puts the interest and longevity of the 
community as the focus of our cohousing endeavor.

To the point made earlier about having an experienced/successful developer on 
the team, we also needed to do so, and found a local developer who had 
demonstrated experience in our neighborhood. She understood we hired her 
specifically for her expertise in development and to help us get proposal 
requests out to prospective lenders, and see the project through to completion.

As architects with cohousing-specific and other multifamily experience and a 
general contractor already on the team for pre-construction services, our 
developer understood that we didn't need or necessarily want feedback on 
building design or construction issues, but it's been helpful to have her as a 
resource for construction easements and
foundation/shoring, and utility coordination issues.

It was difficult for a group of future residents to access financing for our 
cohousing community, but with a developer as consultant, we were able to frame 
it as a fairly simple deal, and communicate in
their terms what they needed to see.

We have a perm loan proposal from our construction lender, but will likely shop 
the loan around in January after construction is complete.

Mike Mariano
http://www.capitolhillurbancohousing.org/
Where we have our future architecture studio floor and walls in place, and are 
pouring our second floor concrete level next Friday, then moving up with four 
floors of wood frame residences above.

michael mariano aia | schemata workshop inc, architect & principal, 112 5th 
ave., seattle, wa 98109
206.285.1589
www.schemataworkshop.com<http://www.schemataworkshop.com>

PS:  I have an intermittent e-mail glitch.  If you write and do not hear back 
from me shortly, please call me or please re-send.  Thank you,  Ruth