A planned Urban Land Institute tour of apartments at the Lofts at Cathedral on March 6 had to be scrapped. Between the time the event was announced and the day of the tour, the last of the 120 apartments had been rented.
That minor inconvenience was good news to Ginny Myrick, president and CEO of the Cathedral District Jacksonville, and Ryan Hoover, president of TVC Development Inc., part of The Vestcor Companies.
Lofts at Cathedral comprises the restored historic former YWCA, built in 1950, at 325 E. Duval St., and an adjacent new building at 327 E. Duval St. The YWCA has 28 units and the new building 92.
The total project cost was $40 million.
Summit Contracting Group Inc. was the contractor for the renovation and construction.
The grand opening for the Lofts at Cathedral was in December and residents started moving in early this year.
There are 84 affordable housing units for residents at 30%, 60% and 80% of the area median income. That includes two-person households making between $27,000 and $78,000.
The rest of the units are at market rate.
There are 20 studios with rents from $967 to $1,075; 74 one-bedroom units from $1,030 to $1,300; and 26 two-bedrooms from $1,237 and $1,475.
With the completion of this project, Vestcor now has 851 units Downtown including those at 11E and The Carling.
The mix of rents is how neighborhoods like Avondale and San Marco came to be, Myrick said.
“Think of Avondale, San Marco and Riverside. You have a little commercial area in the middle. And around that are duplexes, people that are just starting their careers,” she said.
“Around that are single-family homes, people who are making a little more money, and around that are estate homes. That’s how the neighborhoods were designed before. And there’s a social component to that that most people don’t even think about when you have mixed incomes.”
The project was conceived in 2016 but between acquiring financing, working with city and state government and meeting building requirements when renovating a historically designated building like the YWCA, such projects don’t happen overnight, Myrick said.
It was financed by Low-Income Housing Tax Credits through Raymond James; Construction Financing was provided by EverBank, the permanent financing was provided by NLP (Neighborhood Lending Partners), and a gap loan was issued by the Jacksonville Housing Finance Authority as well as a local government loan and a historic preservation loan from the Downtown Investment Authority and owner equity, according to Hoover.
For the former YWCA, window casings had to be recreated to match those of the original building. However, some historic touches added character to the lobby. Vestcor decided to keep the vintage telephone booth and mailbox slots.
