Mission First Housing Development Corporation

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The Groundbreaking of The SeVerna
Friday, October 15, 2010

Friday, October 15 dawned clear and sunny, the perfect day to celebrate the groundbreaking of The SeVerna – a 60 unit new construction project located at 1015 First Street NW in the Northwest One neighborhood of Washington DC. These 60 units are Phase I of the project, to be followed in the next 2-3 years with an additional 130 affordable units in a high rise building on K Street. An added bonus, the entire SeVerna project is being built to meet Enterprise’s Green Communities Criteria.

Yvonne Williams

Yvonne Williams, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Bible Way Church welcomed the crowd and described how her parents, Apostle Smallwood E. Williams and Mother Verna L. Williams, the original founders of the Bible Way Church, had inspired the vision for this project. In fact, the project is named in honor of her father and mother, using two initials of her father’s name, plus her mother’s name: SeVerna.

A cornerstone in the Northwest One community, the Bible Way Church and its affiliate nonprofit corporation, Golden Rule Apartments, Inc., have been an integral part of the neighborhood’s revitalization. The SeVerna is a long-anticipated redevelopment of the former Golden Rule Center site, and a striking complement to the other beautiful projects Bible Way has sponsored: Golden Rule Apartments, and Golden Rule Plaza.

From right to left: Yvonne L. Williams, Chair of the Board of Trustees of

Bible Way Church; Sarah Constant, Managing Director, Mission First Housing

Development Corporation; Paul Connelly, Vice President, PNC Bank; Apostle

James Silver, Pastor of Bible Way Church; The Honorable Marion Barry,

Councilmember, Ward 8; The Honorable Tommy Wells, Councilmember,

Ward 6; Ronald D. Lipford, President, Golden Rule Apartments, Inc.; Adrianne

Todman, Executive Director, DC Housing Authority

Construction of The SeVerna, Phase I, is expected to be completed by the Winter of 2011. Thanks to collaboration between Mission First Housing Development Corporation, The Henson Development Company, and Golden Rule Apartments, Inc., a total of $15.6 million in development funding has been secured for the project, including LIHTC (9%) equity and construction-perm financing from PNC Bank, New Communities funds from the DC office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED), gap funding from DC Office of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), and capital grant funds from the DC Housing Authority (DCHA).

Labels: Bible Way Church, low income housing tax credits, SeVerna

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Mission First HDC | 1330 New Hampshire Ave NW, Suite 116 | Washington, DC 20036 | 202-223-9785 (office) | 202-223-9750 (fax)