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Low-Cost Housing Eliminated, But Nothing Built in Its Place
Lara West used to rent at Parkland Gardens in Arlington County. Developers bought the complex, but the 149 apartments have sat empty for about a year.
(By Katherine Frey -- The Washington Post)
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Property owners preparing for redevelopment generally would prefer to keep tenants until the actual redevelopment begins because they can maintain a better cash flow, but sometimes they need to "empty out the property" if the renovation or redevelopment work is substantial, Leisch said.
The local real estate market became "distorted," said Alvin Smuzynski, president and chief executive of the nonprofit Wesley Housing Development. He said real estate investors bought properties at such high prices that they need to charge top-dollar rents or sale prices for them, often with speculative, nontraditional financing. It is becoming obvious that many potential occupants could not afford the cost.
"A lot of things are not going through," said Rex Peters, director of real estate for Fairfax County's Department of Housing and Community Development.
The situation is likely to be temporary, and many of the projects are eventually going to move forward. Centreville's Sunset Knolls, with 144 vacant units, had been slated for redevelopment into townhouses, but the project stalled and the county considered buying it for affordable housing, Peters said. Now another developer has purchased the site, he said.
Similarly, he said, a 360-unit apartment complex called the Ridgeleigh at Van Dorn went into foreclosure, but it has been purchased and will again become rental housing, he said.
Leisch said he believed most of these projects will be "back on track in 18 months."
In the meantime, officials say there is little they can do about buildings that have been removed from the housing stock, unless they pose a safety hazard.
"It's unfortunate, to say the least," said Chris Zimmerman, an Arlington board member. "It's one of those frustrating things, the combination of private property rights and a volatile real estate market."
J. Walter Tejada, vice chairman of the board, shares his irritation about the way people were displaced by companies that were not committed to going forward with the projects.
"Some landowners treat people like they are just a deck of cards they are playing," Tejada said. "They don't realize the tremendous damage they cause. It's just another passing business deal to them with no effect on their lives at all."
Parkland Gardens in North Arlington, for example, had 149 apartments and housed many residents who could not afford to move to other apartments in Arlington, said former tenant Lara West, who moved out in October 2005. She said the building had been allowed to deteriorate in anticipation that it would be sold and redeveloped. She was told evictions were looming, so she found an apartment she could afford in Sterling. Her rent had been less than $1,000 a month at Parkland Gardens.
Some residents "didn't have the resources to move," including some elderly people, West said.
