With Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Ryback and city council members on hand, Village Green Cos. CEO and chairman Jonathan Holtzman joined other members of a development team to break ground late last month on Mill District City Apartments, a 175-unit, mixed-use, market-rate rental community targeted for completion and lease up in early 2011. The $33 million dollar project will follow the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) National Green Building Standard, will feature a 3,500 square foot specialty market anchoring ground-floor retail , and is within walking distance of downtown cultural amenities.

Read the complete article here:

http://multifamilyexecutive.com/development/multifamily-developers-resume-construction.aspx

The article goes on to talk about “weak demand” and the lower employment and jobs. Fortunately we in the Midwest don’t see these problems like the major metropolitan areas around the country. Yes we lose jobs and have struggles but people in the Midwest pay their rent for the most part!

The article goes on to cover “sacrificing rent for occupancy” and I agree we see owners offering incentives to attract new tenants.

In summary multifamily investment real estate still tops our list for the best place to invest your money. Sure there are risks and challenges but what investment doesn’t?

To read the full article click here:

http://nreionline.com/globalrealestate/sept09_article1.html

See the attached summary package and contact us for more details or questions.

Willowbrook Package – Aug 2009 summary

You can read The Happiness Index story here and you can see an ABC "Good Morning America" report on the index here.

There’s no better time to buy real estate in and around Cedar Rapids and Eastern Iowa!

As banks and other lenders await the shake-out from an economic stimulus package, credit is tight, and many potential first-time homebuyers are still on the sidelines, continuing to rent apartments. As a result, the multifamily market is maintaining resiliency. George Ratiu, Research Economist, gives us an overview of the multifamily sector.
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For months now, apartment executives and industry watchers have lamented what they’re seeing in the marketplace—laid-off workers moving out to find cheaper places to reside and new renters bargaining for more concessions. But only now, as data from the fourth quarter trickles in can we fully understand the carnage that closed out 2008.

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Hot off the press today from the Cedar Rapids Gazette

from GazetteOnline – News Headlines

CEDAR RAPIDS and The City Council last night hired a local firm, Transitions Made Better Inc., to administer housing rehabilitation funds for landlords with flood-damaged properties.Earlier Wednesday, Paula Hinzman Mitchell, supervisor in the city’s Housing Services office, said the city expects the state Department of Economic Development to begin releasing Community Development Block Grant funds to help flood-affected landlords soon after the city has its program to administer the funds in place.To date, more than 500 landlords with a total of 874 rental units have applied for help from the program.Hinzman Mitchell said it would cost about $22 million if each of the units received the maximum rehabilitation award of $24,999. An additional $12,500 per unit is also available to cover added project costs, which include lead-based paint remediation in instances where it is necessary.Landlords have been agitating for housing rehabilitation help for many months as both state Jumpstart funds and federal CDBG funds have come into the city for homeowners and small businesses.The landlords have argued that they were a major provider of affordable housing in the city’s flood-damaged neighborhoods and that getting their properties renovated was the quickest, cheapest way for the city to reestablish affordable housing lost in the June 2008 flood."Certainly one of the goals of the CDBG program is to provide decent affordable housing, and so this activity will be consistent with that overall major goal," Hinzman Mitchell said.The landlord program is open to those with seven or fewer rental units, and the assistance will come in the form of five-year forgivable loans.Hinzman Mitchell noted that city had invited several entities to submit proposals to administer the landlord assistance program, but only Theresa Bornbach, president of Transitions Made Better Inc. in Cedar Rapids, submitted a proposal. Bornbach has experience administering recovery funds for local businesses, Hinzman Mitchell said.The firm will receive an administrative fee of up to 2 percent to administer the program.Keith Smith, president of Landlords of Linn County, told the City Council last night Bornbach has earned his respect in the way she has advocated for small businesses during the flood recovery. He said landlords are confident Bornbach would "meet our needs."Bornbach is founder/CEO of Corridor CoWorks Inc. and The Corridor Institute, and she is a former Alliant Energy vice president.

Now with the floods in Eastern Iowa thousands of homes have been destroyed leaving people waiting and wondering what’s going to happen. Many who are hoping for a FEMA buy out will have wait up to a year or more. In the mean time these people need a place to rent and there are very few vacancies in Cedar Rapids and there won’t be for a number of years!

If you’ve been thinking about investing in apartments it’s time to stop thinking and get acting! We have a number of listings and more coming soon so contact us today or check out www.MultiFamilyAssociates.com to see all the eastern Iowa apartment listings.

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