On October 25, San Antonio-based Frost Bank announced that it has made an equity investment of $500,000 into the Austin Housing Conservancy Fund (AHC) to support workforce-affordable rental housing in the rapidly growing Austin metropolitan area. AHC, founded in 2016, is an equity fund focused on purchasing multifamily properties and preserving them as affordable housing for the nurses, teachers, first responders and creative workers in greater Austin. The nonprofit organization Affordable Central Texas is the investment manager of AHC.
“We’re proud to support Affordable Central Texas and the Austin Housing Conservancy Fund, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because the fund is doing the right thing in such an innovative way,” says Tim Crowley, Frost Bank’s region president in the Austin area. “Affordable housing is a huge quality of life issue for Austin-area residents and an economic development issue for everyone. By preserving and adding to affordable housing, the fund will help make so many people’s lives better.”
Officials with ACT and AHC expect to apply Frost Bank’s investment toward their goal of purchasing 1,000 affordable multifamily housing units per year. The fund has participated in four acquisitions totaling more than $130 million in value with 1,000 units serving 1,500-plus residents. Since the acquisition, the fund has doubled the number of children as residents, introduced Housing Choice vouchers and added programs and services targeted toward the needs of tenants with no displacement to existing residents.
“We are honored that Frost Bank has chosen us for an equity investment,” says David Steinwedell, president and CEO of Affordable Central Texas. “Frost Bank’s status as a long-standing leader in the banking and business community is highly valued, and we look forward to a long relationship with the bank to help us meet the workforce housing needs of the people in Central Texas that make Austin the place we all want to live.”
Established in 1868, Frost bank operates 153 financial centers across Texas, including 16 in the Austin region.
