Fort Chaplin Park
LOCATION
Washington, D.C.
UNITS
549
ACQUIRED
Acquired in 2016. Rehabilitation completed in 2018.
ASSET TYPE
LIHTC / Section 8
PROPERTY TYPE
Low-rise
Community Spotlight
Fort Chaplin Park Apartments, a 549-unit property in Washington, D.C., was acquired in partnership with the Chaplin Hope Tenants Association through the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA). Fort Chaplin Park Apartments features floorplans ranging from studio apartments to three-bedroom townhomes across a 16.7-acre campus, creating a vibrant community in and of itself.
Praised by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Fort Chaplin Park Apartments received the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition’s Excellence Award in the Preservation Category and features the largest rooftop community solar system in D.C.
The Challenge
At the time of acquisition, 30% of the units at Fort Chaplin Park were not protected as affordable housing, and all of the units and facilities stood to benefit from an extensive renovation.
The Game Plan
The affordability of the property was both enhanced and extended, and both the unit interiors and community spaces were extensively renovated. The renovation included the construction of a new 15,000 square foot clubhouse and community center, which replaced a facility that did not provide residents the support they needed.
The Outcome
Executing a strategy that included Low Income Housing Tax Credits, Tax-Exempt Bonds, and transferring a project-based Section 8 HAP contract to a portion of the property, Standard Communities provided residents with the certainty of long-term affordability while also completing a rehabilitation scope that invests more than 10 times the capital into the community than other TOPA participants had proposed.
