Victory Centre

The development

Victory Centre is located in the Village of Bartlett at the intersection of West Bartlett Road and Route 59. A full Continuum of Care campus, Victory Centre is made up of two buildings, a Supportive Living Facility (SLF) with 104 apartments, and a building for independent senior living with another 104 apartments. In 1999, the North West Housing Partnership (NWHP), a nonprofit organization specializing in developing senior housing in Chicago’s north and west suburbs, acquired the site from a Bartlett resident. NWHP’s goal was to build a campus that could provide for all senior needs, which led them to partner with the for-profit Pathway Senior Living, a senior housing developer that had the SLF license required to provide the necessary senior services.

The SLF building has 40 one-bedroom and 64 studio apartments, with six different floor plans to choose from, ranging from 385 to 621 square feet. The independent living building contains 94 one-bedroom and 10 two-bedroom apartments, ranging from 632 to 928 square feet. Each SLF apartment has a kitchenette with refrigerator, microwave and sink, while the independent living apartments have a fully furnished kitchen. The SLF building has a full-service dining room serving three meals a day, a full-time nursing staff, library, outdoor patio and many common areas. The independent apartment building offers amenities such as an exercise room, a beauty salon, library and shared common space.

Creating affordability

All 104 apartments in the SLF building and 83 apartments in the independent living building are affordable, made possible through the Illinois Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program administered by the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA). The tax credit was created at the federal level in 1986 to support the construction and rehabilitation of apartments priced at rents low-income families can afford. These tax credits, which are allocated by states, give investors a 10-year federal income tax benefit in exchange for immediate cash infusions to create affordable apartments. Victory Centre received approximately $535,000 in LIHTC. Victory Centre residents must be income eligible, which is set at 60 percent area median income (AMI), which was $33,540 annually for an individual or $38,340 for a two-person household in 2013. The SLF apartments, depending on their size, cost between $4,044 and $4,511 a month, which includes rent and all services for private-pay individuals. As residents age and spend down their assets, any remaining income is transferred directly to Victory Centre to pay for rent and services. Each resident keeps $90 per month of his or her income and the rest is given to Victory Centre to cover rent and services. The Dept. of Health and Family Services reimburses Victory Centre up to $2,239.80 for a 30-day month per resident. For a 31-day month, the maximum reimbursement is $2,314.46 per month, per resident.

The affordable one-bedroom independent apartments rent for $799 per month and the affordable two-bedroom apartments rent for $880 per month. The market rate one-bedrooms rent for $905 per month (as of December 2013).

Financing

NWHP acquired the land with the help of a $600,000 no-interest loan from an NWHP board member. Pathway Senior Living provided the remaining $400,000. NWHP received a $989,480 tax credit award from IHDA for the independent senior apartments. NWHP also secured an AMBAC Program first mortgage for $4.6 million. AMBAC is a risk-sharing program that is just one of many taxable debt programs that IHDA offers. Victory Centre also received an Illinois Affordable Housing Trust Fund Loan of $2.75 million and a Federal Home Loan Bank Affordable Housing Program grant in the amount of $581,000 for the construction financing. NWHP and Pathway Senior Living secured additional funding for the SLF portion of Victory Centre, including LIHTC, $10.3 million from the IHDA Risk Share Loan, an IHDA Home Loan of $3 million, and $750,000 from the Federal Home Loan Bank Affordable Housing Program.

The SLF opened in December 2006 and the independent apartments opened in May 2007. The construction cost for the two buildings totaled $30 million: $12 million for the independent apartments and $18 million for the SLF’s construction.

Contact

Pathway Senior Living
888-342-4111, www.pathwaysl.com