The Commercial Real Estate Alpha Site

VENICE — The developer behind John Nolen Gardens said Wednesday that he pulled the plug on the proposed 510-unit apartment complex because he didn’t see support from either city or Sarasota County officials to waive or reduce more than $6.1 million in government fees.
Ed Pinto said he was proud he was able to get raw construction costs down to roughly $74,000 per unit, or $100,000 per unit when land and soft costs were factored in.
“We did a tremendous amount of bending of the cost curve and we’re very proud of that, but there was no way that $12,000 in fees per unit could be added to that equation and have a feasible development,” Pinto said.
About 40 percent of those fees were costs he hoped the city of Venice would forgive or subsidize, including permitting, water and sewer hookups, and “extraordinary mitigation” fees of up to $2,000 per unit that was agreed upon in 2003, when the 29.9-acre site on Knights Trail Road was annexed into the city.

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Thaxton referred to the process currently used by the Sarasota and Venice housing authorities to fund public housing projects. Nine-percent tax credits are awarded through a lottery, while there’s a less competitive application process for 4 percent tax credits.

Those funding options can be opened to the private sector, Thaxton said, but because federal funding is so scarce, they’re typically restricted to public projects.

“It’s kind of baffling why we as a federal government don’t invest more in these tax credits,” Thaxton said. “Because it’s a market-driven solution for subsidizing affordable housing.”

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