Spring Housing Speaker Promotes Essential Middle-Income Housing Development

The Wood Center held its biannual Housing Affordability Speaker Series last month at Bell Hall featuring Todd Williams, President of Charlotte-based multifamily developer Grubb Properties. Williams spoke about Grubb’s market approaches to developing essential middle-income housing.

Developing much needed rental housing for middle-income households earning between 60% and 120% of area median income has become increasingly challenging with increases in land, building and capital costs. Despite these challenges, Grubb Properties has been able to build and operate new essential rental housing at scale, delivering more than 5,500 units across the country with an active pipeline for several thousand units more.

Williams showed how the company delivers essential rental housing through its Link Apartments® brand. “Our investment strategy is focused on essential housing in growing markets where people need to access jobs. We believe essential housing to be one of the most resilient and yet one of the most undersupplied asset classes,” said Williams.

Williams explained a number of creative development methods such as thoughtful and opportunistic site acquisition, designs for smaller, simpler, and more efficient units, a focus on transit options, partnerships, and pursuing tax incentives such as local programs and federal opportunity zones.

As a result, Grubb has been able to offer quality housing to households priced out of a typical new luxury apartment but do not qualify for publicly subsidized low-income housing, while providing its investors with a market return.

The Wood Center’s Housing Affordability Speaker Series highlights solutions to the country’s affordable housing problem, particularly from predominantly private-sector models which can attract capital and deliver housing at scale.