Seeking to make an even greater impact on creating and preserving affordable housing in the U.S., Harmony Housing has formed a new wholly owned subsidiary, Harmony Housing Affordable Development, Inc. To expand its services, particularly in the creation of ground-up projects, HHAD has acquired the property development, development management and advisory business of Greystone Affordable Development.
Harmony Housing, a Georgia-based mission-driven nonprofit, was founded by Greystone CEO Stephen Rosenberg to focus on acquiring and preserving affordable housing properties with expiring tax credits that are nearing the end of their rent subsidy periods. In operation for more than 20 years, Harmony House has acquired more than 17,000 units of properties serving low- and moderate-income families and seniors. Revenues go to acquiring new properties and excess proceeds are donated to charities. In April, Harmony Housing sold 90 affordable housing communities for $1.2 billion to the Essential Housing Impact Partnership, a joint venture of The Michaels Organization, the Urban Investment Group within Goldman Sachs Asset Management and the Community Development Trust.
As the affordable development affiliate of Greystone, Greystone Affordable Development preserved, recapitalized, redeveloped and constructed more than 16,725 units of affordable housing for families and seniors in rural and urban areas.
While Harmony Housing and Greystone Affordable Development were both founded by Rosenberg, they have historically operated independently of each other.
However, the two entities have worked together in the past, including on Greystone Affordable Development’s first new construction project in the Charlotte, N.C., market in 2022. They collaborated with Urban Trends Real Estate Inc. to develop Eastway Crossings, a 132-unit Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) community in East Charlotte, N.C., for residents aged 55 years and older with household incomes at or below 60 percent of the Average Median Income.
Stronger Together
For Harmony Housing, the new combination of HHAD enables the organization to expand services to include the creation of new ground-up affordable housing alongside an industry-leading development team. For the legacy Greystone Affordable Development group, the new alignment means leveraging Harmony Housing’s strength as a prominent national owner of affordable housing to engage in more development transactions in the nonprofit sector.
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Tanya Eastwood, president and CEO of Harmony Housing Affordable Development who previously headed up Greystone Affordable Development in the same roles, said in prepared remarks she is proud of what the team has accomplished in the past and knows they are well positioned for future success under the umbrella of Harmony Housing. Eastwood noted that Harmony Housing’s impact in the communities it serves and within the affordable housing industry has been clear and admirable from the beginning. She said they are excited to be closely aligned with a mission-driven group in a joint effort to develop and preserve safe, high quality affordable housing for those who need it most.
Jim O’Connell, president of Harmony Housing, said in a prepared statement working more closely with the Affordable Development team on joint projects will help the nonprofit reach its goals of making an even stronger impact on the world through affordable housing and charitable contributions with the excess proceeds.