(RECAP: A Richmond-area development group has bought the vacant Whittaker Memorial Hospital and could start renovating the historic building into a 62-unit apartment building by the beginning of next year. Whittaker Development II LLC closed on the buy for the Southeast Community landmark last Thursday. The sale price is “substantially north” of the $600,000 that C’est La Guerre LLC, the ancient owners, paid for the building last March. The project will place 62 one- and two-bedroom apartments into the existing building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. The new group will be applying for tax credits through VHDA. If they get those and have a sound financing package, Newport News’ housing authority will grant $709,000 to the project from HOME funds — money HUD gives to localities for rehab projects, among other things. It will also offer eight Section 8 housing vouchers for future tenants.)

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(RECAP: Bank lenders are making a lot more permanent loans on apartment properties. These banks are lending to owners of stabilized apartment buildings even as they step away from funding new construction projects. New regulations and worries about overbuilding are driving many banks to make smaller construction loans, and to lend on fewer properties. Banks lenders originated more than a third—38 percent—of all permanent apartment loans in the first half of 2016. That’s not far behind the share of apartment loans made by agency lenders, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have been the dominant source of lending on stabilized apartment properties since 2012. Agency lenders still originated more apartment loans than any other type of lender, but their lead is shrinking, with less than half—just 44 percent—of all permanent apartment loans in the first half of 2016.)

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(RECAP: Municipal officials and community advocates turned out in a huge way for Thursday’s groundbreaking of the Housing Resource Center. The new structure signaled a serious commitment to finding shelter in Virginia Beach for the homeless people – often around 400 – counted annually in parks, along streets and in cars throughout the city. Tim McCarthy, chair of Bringing an End to All City Homelessness, relayed how folks journeyed to communities around the country to devise the best model for the $30 million, three-tale building. It will rise at 104 N. Witchduck Road, near Southern Boulevard, and is scheduled to open in spring 2018. The resource center will house more than 100 people, from single adults to families. Some 30 efficiency apartments are part of the mix.)

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