By Ken Sain | East Valley Tribune
Chandler has approved over 2,000 new apartment units, but for the most part, no construction has been taking place.
What’s the problem?
Apparently, a cash crunch is to blame, according to a city official.
“Anecdotally, chatting with the industry, as they go to fund a multifamily project, they start with the land and the entitlement costs,” Kevin Mayo, the city’s planning administrator, said at a council neighborhood subcommittee meeting last month.
“That’s one funding package. Then, there’s the construction cost. When they went and entitled the land, it was valued at a certain amount, and interest rates are based on a certain price and a lot of those properties actually dipped a little bit in their value.
“They overpaid for them, so the larger funding sources have said ‘Until this gets back into the green, we’re not going to fund the second half and allow you to construct.’”
