Aeon acquires Carrington Drive to preserve affordability of 128 apartment homes

Today Aeon, a nonprofit developer, owner and manager of affordable homes, completed the purchase of Carrington Drive, a 128-apartment property in Brooklyn Center. Key partners in the acquisition include Hennepin County, the City of Brooklyn Center, Housing Partnership Network (HPN), and Community Housing Capital (CHC). HPN and CHC combined to provide the first mortgage for the property. This acquisition will preserve all 128 apartment homes as affordable for more than 300 residents.

“This is the second time we have had the opportunity to partner with the City and Hennepin County to preserve a NOAH property in Brooklyn Center.” said Blake Hopkins, Vice President of Housing Development at Aeon. “We’re thankful for their continued support and are also excited to partner with HPN and CHC on this deal. By supporting Aeon’s purchase of Carrington Drive, our partners were able to ensure the preservation of long-term affordability for hundreds of individuals and families.”

Carrington Drive is an example of naturally occurring affordable housing, or NOAH, properties that have aged into affordability. Aeon has purchased 1,575 NOAH apartment homes in the past several years, keeping rents affordable below 60 percent of the area median income.

NOAH affordability is threatened in the Twin Cities’ strong estate market where a growing number of building sales are leading to increased rents, pricing out current residents. In Minneapolis alone, more than 1,800 NOAH apartment homes were lost in 2017 according to Minnesota Housing Partnership’s 2018 Market Watch report.

Preserving existing affordable housing benefits communities by keeping residents in their homes and children in their schools. It also ensures that aging properties remain long-term assets to the community.