Photo by Rachel Stone
Affordable housing built in the Wynnewood neighborhood during the post-World War II era will be demolished soon to make way for modern apartments.
Residents of 129 homes were relocated with the help of developer Pivotal Housing Partners. Moving expenses were paid, along with the costs of reconnecting utilities and in some cases, covering the difference in rent for their new places for two years, says Darren W. Smith of Auxano Development. The former residents of the complex, at South Llewellyn Avenue and Wynnewood Drive, will have first rights to the new apartments when they are delivered in about two years.
The developer plans to build about 210 apartments on the 8.85-acre site. About 30 of the new apartments will be available to those earning no more than 30% of the area median income ($18,100 for a single person and $25,850 for a family of four). About 180 will be available to those making no more than 60% of the median income ($36,240 for a single person and $51,720 for a family of four).
“This was barracks-style housing built in the 1940s,” Smith says of the old complex.
Photo by Rachel Stone
This apartment complex has been on Smith’s plate since he went to work for Bank of America 20 years ago. The corporation tasked him with redeveloping the property using housing tax credits, but it couldn’t be done at the time because of caps on competitive housing tax credits from the State of Texas, coupled with complicated deed restrictions.
This property was lumped in with adjacent senior and family affordable housing that used to be composed of identical buildings.
When he was still with Bank of America, Smith “bifurcated” the property, with permission from the state and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The deed restrictions were temporarily removed so that two new developments could be built.
The result was High Point Family Living and High Point Senior Living. Once they were constructed, new affordable-housing deed restrictions were put in place.
Now a developer with his own company and partnering with Pivotal Housing Partners, Smith secured noncompetitive housing tax credits to redevelop this third piece, which abuts the Wynnewood Village Shopping Center.
As the last phase of a plan Smith put into place 15 years ago, deed restrictions will be removed from 25 acres of land in the Wynnewood area once this project is completed, making it available for commercial development.
Working with neighbors in Wynnewood North was crucial, he said.
“This thing never happens if that neighborhood doesn’t support it,” Smith says.
Neighbors have a great rapport with Smith and his team, says Denise Requardt, president of the Wynnewood North Neighborhood Association.
Since High Point Family and High Point Senior Living opened, the neighborhood has calmed a bit, she says.
“As far as we’re concerned, it’s a positive situation,” Requardt says.
Here is a rendering of the new complex.
