Midwest office tower is reborn

Tax Credit Advisor: By Stephen K. Cooper

Sherman Associates, Inc. has a vision for downtown Kansas City:  They intended to convert a 17-story office building that had been a blight for ten years into the Grand Boulevard Lofts, an affordable housing project.  Closing on the 134-unit apartment project was originally scheduled for late 2008, but the financial crisis that rocked the affordable housing market made that impossible and delayed the job.  Sherman didn't give up.  An intense, year-long effort by the Minneapolis developer to shore up the financing for the #33 million low-income housing tax credit project, including a soft load of federal Tax Credit Assistance Program (TCAP) fund from the Missouri Housing Development Commission, has enable the project to move forward.