New nonprofit and CMHA buy Northwest Side apartments for affordable housing

A new nonprofit is teaming with the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority to buy the Copperleaf Apartments off Sawmill Road on the city's Northwest Side with the goal, they say, of preserving affordable housing in a region that needs more of it.

The Columbus Housing Enterprise and CMHA are paying $8.1 million for the 108-unit property from a partnership of companies headed by local developers Bob Weiler and Don Kelley.

The units will be aimed at those making 80% or less of the area median income, which is $52,500 for one person and $74,950 for a four-person household.

The Rev. John Edgar, retired executive director of the nonprofit Community Development for All People, is the president of the Columbus Housing Enterprise. He said people living at Copperleaf already are in that income range.

"Our intention is for that to continue to be the case for years to come," he said.

Edgar said it's a real challenge now to build more affordable housing in the area. Community Development for All People has worked for years with Nationwide Children's Hospital to develop affordable housing on the South Side near the hospital, but the hot housing market has even driven up the prices of those homes.

"To Bob Weiler and Don Kelley, it makes sense to them ensuring some apartments they developed stay affordable for decades to come," Edgar said.

Edgar said most of the financing for the purchase comes through a low-interest loan from the Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing through its affiliate, the Ohio Capital Finance Corporation. CMHA now owns the Copperleaf property, and will lease it back to Columbus Housing Enterprise for 75 years. CMHA does not pay property taxes.

Robert Bitzenhofer, CMHA vice president, said the Copperleaf rents run about $1,030 a month now. Future tenants will be able to use federal housing vouchers to help pay their rent.

Although the Copperleaf Apartments, built in 1989, are in Columbus just east of Sawmill Road and south of Summit View Road, they are in the Dublin City School District, expected to be attractive to parents.

Weiler said on Monday that it's easier and less expensive to preserve affordable housing with existing units than to build new developments and they wanted to support the new effort.

"The last thing we want is this new (nonprofit) entity to be a receptacle for lousy properties," Weiler said. "Don’s going to have his 94th birthday in April, the same month I’ll be 88. We’ve been blessed with far more than we'd ever need or want. We figured with the affordable housing situation so desperate, why wait?"

So they sold for what Weiler said was below market rate.

Copperleaf's market value is about $16 million, or about $150,000 per unit, Weiler said. He and Kelley are selling it for about $75,000 a unit, he said, calling it a "bargain sale."

"There's no way we'd be able to build this project for less than $200,000 a unit," Weiler said.

Weiler said he hopes this effort will spur other property owners to do the same.

Weiler said he and Kelley plan to sell two other complexes to the partnership: Rosebrook Village apartments on Columbus' Far East Side near Reynoldsburg, and Cabot Cove apartments on the city's Far West Side in the Hilliard area. With Copperleaf, the total number of units of the three complexes is about 640, he said.

The eight board members of the nonprofit Columbus Housing Enterprise are:

• Bitzenhofer
• Hal Keller, president emeritus, Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing
• Patty McClimon, senior vice president, Nationwide Children’s Hospital
• Leah Evans, president and CEO, Homeport, a nonprofit builder
• Jordan Henderson, housing director, Community Development for All People
• Michael Kelley, partner at The Kelley Companies and Don Kelley's grandson
• Jim Weiler, chief sustainability officer at The Robert Weiler Company and Bob Weiler's son
• John Wymer, retired CEO, Oakwood Properties

mferench@dispatch.com

@MarkFerenchik