Developers prep for $4M Hollygrove apartments in New Orleans

New Orleans CityBusiness, Jun 16, 2008 by Reports

Construction will begin this summer on a 51-unit affordable apartment complex in Hollygrove, said developer Andre Hooper.

A permit for the $4 million Cypress Manor I project at 8400 Palmetto St. was filed earlier this month. Construction is expected to begin late this summer and end by May 2009, said Hooper, who has developed hundreds of apartments in the city with his brother, Christian Hooper.

Cypress Manor I comes, counter-intuitively, after Cypress Manor II, a 48-unit affordable complex slated to be ready in September. Cypress Manor II stands at the intersection of Stroelitz and Cambronne streets, a block from the Palmetto Street building.

Both projects were financed with Gulf Opportunity Zone low- income housing tax credits supplied by the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency. There were some concerns earlier this year about making ends meet on the project because of devaluation of the credits, Hooper said.

Cypress Manor II closed its financing in August after selling the tax credits to investors for 99 cents each. The credits for Cypress Manor I, only earned the developers 91 cents per tax credit, a decrease in return that left the brothers scrambling to secure new sources for hundreds of thousands of dollars in financing needed to complete the project.

The Hooper brothers completed the first apartment renovation after Katrina at Cypress Trace, a 320-unit market-rate complex also in Hollygrove.