Case Study: Heritage Oaks Delivers First Units of Two-Decade Redevelopment in Florida

When Heritage Oaks opened in early January in Largo, Fla., it marked a visible milestone in the long-running redevelopment of Rainbow Village in Pinellas County: the first completed phase of a four-phase plan to redevelop 200 units of aging public housing stock with over 400 units of new affordable units for seniors, individuals and families. Heritage Oaks, which celebrated its official ribbon cutting on Jan. 8, has converted 48 of those public housing units, delivering 80 new affordable apartments for seniors to the Clearwater metro.

Heritage Oaks is a useful case study in persistence, with initial site plans dating back to 2007. Partners describe a patient approach, layering Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) equity, various soft funding sources, and a network of local partners in order to reach phase one completion.

“It took multiple attempts and an abundance of patience for our whole development team, along with our local government, Pinellas County,” says Justin Corder, vice president of development at Newstar Development, which helmed the project.

Building a Resilient Capital Stack
For the development team, one of the largest practical hurdles was simply getting into the deal at all. “The biggest challenge was securing a nine percent LIHTC award, which, in Florida, typically comes down to a competitive application process that’s settled by a random lottery draw,” says Corder. “Applications are only awarded on a once-a-year basis, so we had quite a few applications before one finally hit.” Corder credits Pinellas County’s ongoing funding commitments with sustaining momentum over the years while the project awaited its LIHTC award.

Though the team finally secured a nine percent LIHTC allocation in 2022, Corder says that COVID-related supply-chain problems and construction-cost escalation opened a gap of more than $3 million. A Pinellas County Housing Authority 2023 audit separately notes inflation in material costs and unit-turn costs affecting Rainbow Village, which provides public-record context for the financial pressures affecting the redevelopment.

To close the gap, the team turned to its strong local partnerships, working with Pinellas County to secure funds from Florida’s State Housing Initiatives Partnership Program ($860,000), the HOME Investment Partnerships Program ($1.5 million), and Community Development Block Grant funding ($1 million). “All of our sources were critical, and the development would not have closed without them. Pinellas County really stepped up,” Corder says.

Additional sources for the final $31 million development cost included:

• Just under $18 million in nine percent LIHTC equity from Raymond James Affordable Housing Investments;
• $8 million permanent loan from Raymond James Bank;
• $1.69 million loan from PCHA;
• $273,544 deferred developer fee.

One strength of the capital stack came from the ability to source both LIHTC equity and additional debt from the same partner — Raymond James — streamlining logistics and creating a smoother development process. “At Raymond James, we’re able to bring both equity and lending solutions to a project.” says Darryl Seavey, vice president, director of acquisitions at Raymond James. “That combination is essential because the LIHTC equity lowers the amount of debt the property has to carry, which allows the development to offer rents that remain affordable for lower-income seniors.”

Seavey also recognizes the importance of the remaining public sources. “Developments serving very low-income residents typically require multiple funding sources working together. The tax credit equity, local housing funds, housing authority support, rental assistance, and bank financing each addressed a different part of the capital stack and helped make the project feasible,” he says. “Without that layered structure, it becomes extremely difficult to deliver housing at the affordability levels the community needs.”

That observation is especially relevant in the current federal policy climate. In a 2025 statement on President Trump’s discretionary budget proposal, HUD said the administration was seeking major changes to HUD spending, including consolidation and reductions affecting core housing and community-development programs. Given its multilayered funding sources, Heritage Oaks is not a theoretical example of what such uncertainty touches.

Though the capital stack is typical of a mid-size deal, Heritage Oaks took a distinct approach by converting public housing stock without the use of the increasingly popular RAD program, which allows the conversion of public housing units into project-based Section 8 assistance. Instead, Corder says that Heritage Oaks “utilized a Section 18 disposition to convert the public housing units into 80 affordable housing units, 71 of which are supported with project-based vouchers.”

Searching for the End of the Rainbow
The project’s timeline is another outlier. As Pinellas County Housing Authority (PCHA) executive director Neil Brickfield said during the opening ceremony, a master plan was first proposed in 2007 after local authorities targeted Rainbow Village — a 200-unit public housing site — for redevelopment. (The project is not to be confused with another public housing redevelopment, also named Rainbow Village, currently underway in Miami).

As detailed in a public letter from then-interim PCHA executive director Regina Booker, redevelopment efforts began in earnest in 2015. However, progress stalled following the loss of the site’s Difficult Development Area designation and subsequent basis boost, pushing the development team into its search for elusive gap funding.

Eventually, the team was able to assemble the right combination of funding sources, and broke ground on phase one in March 2025. Construction was swift, and Heritage Oaks received its Certificate of Occupancy on November 4, welcoming residents shortly thereafter.

Work on phases two through four is expected to take place over the next several years. Phase two, another 80-unit senior development called Ridgecrest Oaks, is under construction, with completion expected by the end of this year. Phase three, a 120-unit family development called Grand Oaks, received its own nine percent LIHTC award in March 2026, with closure set for early 2027 and completion expected by summer 2028. A second family development, called Grand Oaks II, will make up the fourth phase, with final unit count and timeline forthcoming once funding is secured. Corder says that current plans are for a 128-xunit development that will come online by 2030.

Once completed, all four phases will make up a 400-unit mixed-income community called “The Oaks at Ridgecrest.”

That uncommonly long runway created its own execution-risk question for capital providers: How do you evaluate a first phase that must function on its own while also fitting into a redevelopment process spanning nearly two decades?

Seavey says that Raymond James was sensitive to this question, creating guardrails to risk during underwriting. “When we evaluated Heritage Oaks, the focus was on ensuring the first phase could stand on its own while also supporting the long-term Rainbow Village redevelopment,” he says. “The strength of the development partners, the alignment with the housing authority and local stakeholders, and the strong demand for affordable senior housing in Pinellas County were key considerations. Those fundamentals gave us confidence the project could be delivered successfully and serve as an important first step in the broader redevelopment effort.”

Heritage Oaks consists of 74 one-bedroom apartments and six two-bedrooms The amenity package includes a fitness center, computer lab, shuffleboard court, and dog park, with a pickleball court planned, reflecting a design approach geared toward independent senior living rather than simply age-restricted occupancy.

As Corder details, the development team prioritized internal common areas and building systems that support day-to-day independence and storm resilience in a coastal Florida market. “The design incorporated multiple community and recreational spaces that include a fitness center, club room with warming kitchen, leasing offices, activity rooms on each floor, laundry rooms on each floor, a dog park, and shuffleboard area,” he says.  “To ensure resiliency amidst ever-increased risk of tropical storms, the construction features concrete block with hollow core planks, a flat TPO roof, and emergency generator for the elevators and other critical systems.”

Heritage Oaks underscores a recurring theme in affordable housing. Beyond the challenges of physically replacing 48 obsolete public housing units with 80 affordable senior apartments, a strong team had to remain persistent in holding together sustained public-sector collaboration, years of repeat applications for funding, and an ultimately multilayered capital stack. The result  is a practical example of what it takes to get affordable senior housing financed, structured, and delivered.