Lument has closed a $28 million HUD/FHA Section 221(d) loan to help finance the substantial rehabilitation of Western Horizon in Lorain, Ohio, setting up a major overhaul of the 353-unit affordable housing community.
The deal matters now because it is a finished financing transaction, not a proposal. It brings together fha financing, a Rental Assistance Demonstration conversion, 4% low-income housing tax credits through the Ohio Housing Finance Agency and $9.2 million in tax-exempt bonds underwritten by Lument Securities, giving the project multiple layers of capital at once.
Joey Hague said the FHA 221(d) program was the right fit because it provides fully amortizing 40-year construction-to-permanent financing at a favorable interest rate, language that points to why the structure was chosen for a property of this size. Western Horizon was originally built in the 1950s as three separate communities — Leavitt Homes, Westview Terrace and Westgate Apartments — and all three historically operated as public housing before the RAD conversion.
That history is what makes the financing notable. A property that spent decades in the public housing system is now being rebuilt through a market-based loan, tax credits and tax-exempt bonds, a mix that shows how deeply federal housing policy and private capital now overlap in affordable housing finance. The rehab will matter most to the residents who depend on the complex, but the announcement stops short of giving a completion date or construction schedule.
For Western Horizon, the next question is not whether the money is in place. It is how quickly the rehabilitation can move from closed financing to visible work on the ground in Lorain.
