Just as the City of Falls Church is now fully engaged in the effort to dedicate 4.5 acres in the center of the city known as the Virginia Village for new affordable housing, its other major affordable housing site, The Fields apartments on Ellison Street, has officially come up for sale, and the clock is now ticking for action on that one on whether or not subsidised affordable housing can or will be sustained there.  

The Fields is a 96-unit committed affordable housing property in the City of Falls Church. The property to date has been made affordable through the use of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (Housing Credits) that are set to expire in 2026. Under Virginia Housing’s extended use agreement, the units will remain affordable for a full three years after the Housing Credits expire, until 2029. 

But the entire project has gone up for sale and the development challenges the City with coming up with a plan to retain it as affordable. At the end of August, a deadline for the acquisition of the entire project passed and a number of potential developers responded.

According to a lengthy report on the City’s website, “with information from the City and engagement with the non-profit and for-profit owners of The Fields, consultants have a solid understanding of the long-term intentions of the current owners, as well as their capacity and ability to preserve the property as an affordable multifamily rental.”

With this, the consultants have provided valuable context and outlined crucial steps the City must undertake to protect the property’s affordability and the residents who live there. Firstly, according to the report, “it should be acknowledged that the City recognizes the value The Fields brings to the community of Falls Church, and recognizes that the long-term affordability of The Fields is at risk.” 

As of the end of this August, potential buyers of the property faced a deadline to submit offers to the current owners, with no indications of whether or not maintaining affordability would be a feature of their future ownership.

According to consultants writing on the City’s website, while “It is admirable that the City is taking action to maintain the affordability of the property six years prior to the expiration of the Housing Credits, and nine years prior to the loss of affordability, what became clear through extensive stakeholder engagement, and as is explained in further detail below, however, is that there is no silver bullet that will ensure the long-term preservation of the property at this time. As economically motivated entities, the party/parties currently controlling the property recognize the immense potential future value of the land once the affordability restrictions expire, which limits the options the City or anyone else may have at the current time.”

“Any new owner will also aspire to maximize profits once any affordability restrictions expire. Though there are no immediate actions the City can take to transfer ownership of the property, there are steps that the City can and should take to better position themselves to negotiate with the owner(s) when that time comes,” the consultant said.

Even though the entire complex is changing hands, individual apartments are still not for sale to personal homebuyers. It will remain an entire multi-family rental community. Meanwhile, there is no evidence the City has as yet done anything to keep the project affordable other than to commission a report in 2020 on future options.

No information on what prospective redevelopers intend for the site has been made public to date.

However, Falls Church housing officials have confirmed that the current owner of The Fields is independently seeking a partner “to help preserve its affordability.” According to the consultant’s report filed online, updates on the effort, including any potential partnership, are expected to be reviewed by the City Council later this fall.