Pennrose adds to the affordable development housing stock in Cincinnati
Phase 2 of Walnut Hills Development Near Completion
The Walnut Hills neighborhood will add 36 additional units by Philadelphia based development company Penrose, according to director of development for the organization, Geoff Milz. In partnership with Walnut Hils Urban Redevelopment Foundation, phase two of the affordable development called Thatcher Flats will be completed on August 11th, 2025.
Phase one of the income restricted housing project brought 50 units of affordable housing to the area. Milz says that this 86-unit development follows the vision that the neighborhood. “I think the community was, really wise to put together a plan that focused on preserving affordability for residents that have spent decades in the neighborhood or to attract new residents to the neighborhood.”
Thatcher Flats in Walnut Hills
We featured Geoff Milz on our episode about large-scale apartment buildings. You can check that out here.
Development Decisions Draw Criticism
Despite adding these new affordable units, Pennrose received criticism with the second phase of the development. Pennrose depended upon combination of 4% low-income housing tax credits with state low-income housing tax credits. Due to an application error they had to reapply for the state funding. By the time they resubmitted, only half of the state funding they expected was available.
Milz shares the funding was still helpful because without it the project would be impossible to complete. Due to the state funding being lower than what they were expecting they had to decide whether they were going to abandon the project or continue with sacrifices to Pennrose’s custom exterior architectural flourishes of the building to complete the interior needs.
Pennrose ultimately decided to follow through with the project.
“Ultimately, we made the decision to execute and to close and to build. When I hear the stories of the residents, I know that we absolutely made the right decision.”
The need for more types of housing in Walnut Hills was highlighted in their 2017 Walnut Hills Reinvestment Plan. The plan highlighted that over half of the renter households could only afford rents of $500 or less per month and that new construction in the area would mainly be possible if it was subsidized. The plan also highlighted the need to expand and diversify affordable housing stock.
Milz says most of the pushback is coming from the broader Walnut Hills community who weren’t in favor of the altered plans. Although he understands the pushback, Milz says, “those opinions have caused me to reflect on privilege. The privilege that many in our community have to value, aesthetics over safety, aesthetics over like stability and housing stability. And when you hear the stories of the individuals that live in Thatcher Flats, it’s clear that for many others in our community, they don’t have that same privilege.”
Pennrose’s Cincinnati Development and Philosophy
Pennrose has been around since 1971 and is considered a national leader in the affordable housing space. They were ranked #9 on the Affordable Housing Finace 50 developers list and No. 23 on the owners list.
Milz says that most of the time they are partnering with local community development corporations and nonprofits to serve specified populations or fill a need that has gone unmet. Milz details that a part of their filtering process for the company is going to places where they are wanted.
Other than Thatcher Flats, Pennrose other Cincinnati adevelopments are:
HaNoBe in the College Hill neighborhood
John Arthur Flats in the College Hill Community
Milz says that Pennrose, being one of the largest affordable housing developers in the country, allows them to create various kinds of housing options at scale. “We also are focused on affordable housing of all kinds, whether it’s in rural settings or urban settings or suburban settings. We’re not the only ones that do that, but I think we’re the only ones that bring that constellation of, things together.”
Innovation District
There has been a lot of focus and investment in the Innovation District in Cincinnati. The goal is to bring talent, creative ideas, innovative projects, and more to create a self-sustaining hub of socio-economic success and development of all kinds. Milz says developments like Thatcher Flats could help contribute to this district.
“I believe that Thatcher Flats is the affordable housing for the innovation district. I believe that recent changes to how the city and others are thinking about the Innovation District Development will bring more development. I think that we’re going to see, in the next 5 to 10 years, significantly more development in that corridor and significantly greater need for this type of housing.”
Milz stresses the importance of creating income aligned housing for a variety of occupations. Income aligned housing is defined as housing accustomed to the tenant’s income level. This type of housing model is shown to be a contributor to economic success in a city.
Hernz Laguerre Jr. – Multi-Media Journalist
Hernz is a Haitian American who was born and raised in Spring Valley, NY. He attended school at S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, where he learned to hone his skills as a storyteller. After graduating with his Bachelors in Broadcast and Digital Journalism and his Masters in Television Radio and Film, he went on to a career in media as a producer, reporter and freelance videographer for companies like ESPN and Court TV. He eventually moved to Detroit, where he worked as a Multimedia Journalist for The Detroit News and then the NPR affiliate, WDET, before starting his work with the Brick by Brick team at CET and ThinkTV. Hernz aims to produce stories that tell the bigger picture while doing his due diligence to educate and inform the public about the solutions-focused work being done in the Cincinnati and Dayton areas.
