Improvements planned for two Beaufort County apartment complexes

Published 3:21 pm Wednesday, November 22, 2023

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Two Beaufort County apartment complexes will be rehabilitated with money issued by the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency. The agency issued a $60 million bond to loan to Fitch Irick Portfolio who will use it for 24 separate multi-family housing developments across the state. 

New Horizons Apartments in Washington and Rio Del Mar Apartments in Belhaven are existing affordable housing  properties that will be acquired by Fitch Irick Portfolio, a for-profit developer out of Charlotte. Out of the $60 million bond to loan, $1,772,000 will be used to purchase and rehabilitate New Horizons, but $2,137,000 will be used to purchase and rehabilitate Rio Del Mar, according to the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency. These bonds will cover “a little over half of the total cost to purchase and rehab the properties,” the agency wrote in an email to the Daily News. 

The remainder of the bond to loan will be used on housing developments in Anon, Burke, Cleveland, Columbus, Davie, Edgecombe, Iredell, Johnston, Nash, Pitt, Robeson, Scotland, Stanly and Wake Counties for a total of 769 units across 24 separate multifamily housing developments. 

The bond to loan is part of a group of requests from housing authorities that were sent to and approved by the Local Government Commission for a combined amount nearing $280 million. The money was approved during a LGC meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 14. 

“It was the second consecutive month the LGC voted on large amounts of financing to increase the state’s supply of affordable housing. LGC members approved $775 million in financing in October. By comparison, the LGC approved just $418.5 million in affordable housing financing in all of fiscal year 2022,” according to a press release from the LGC. 

The LGC is chaired by State Treasurer Dale R. Folwell, CPA, and staffed by the Department of State Treasurer. It has a statutory duty to approve most debt issued by units of local government and public authorities in the state. The commission examines whether the amount of money that units borrow is adequate and reasonable for proposed projects and confirms the governmental units can reasonably afford to repay the debt. It also monitors the financial well-being of more than 1,100 local government units,” the press release explained.