Sims Mortgage Funding closed out 2009 with a flourish, completing the last two (of five) scheduled financings for Providence Community Housing. Providence, a not-for-profit organization, was established in 2006 for the purpose of rebuilding affordable housing in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. In November we closed a $2,400,000 loan for Delille Inn, a 51-unit elderly housing project and in December we closed a $5,750,000 loan for St. John Berchman’s, a 150-unit elderly project.

On September 30, 2009 we closed a $6,353,000 loan for Nazareth Inn, a 150 unit elderly housing project in New Orleans, LA and a $5,580,000 loan for Nazareth Inn II, a 120 unit elderly project located next door. The loans were insured under the Section 221(d)(4) substantial rehabilitation program and were structured on an “insurance upon completion” basis. The commitments for mortgage insurance, issued by HUD in December 2007, was part of a complex financing that included low-income housing tax credits and short-term bank debt that the borrower used to acquire the project in January 2008. After the rehabilitation was completed and the contractor and borrower certified their costs to HUD earlier this year, we obtained HUD approval for mortgage increases on both loans totaling approximately $600,000; with the higher loan amounts, the sponsor was able to recover some of the additional rehabilitation costs it incurred without having to commit additional equity.

On September 29, 2009 we closed a $17,384,389 Section 232 loan for the Hebrew Hospital Home of Westchester. The deal was structured as a note modification and consolidation of the Home’s two existing FHA insured obligations: an $18,432,000 Section 232 loan issued in 1996 to finance construction of a skilled nursing facility in Valhalla, NY and a $2,698,000 supplemental loan issued in 2005 to finance additional construction costs incurred in connection with the 1996 project. Herbert J. Sims & Co. was the senior manager of the 1996 tax-exempt bond issue that funded the $18,432,000 loan and Sims Mortgage Funding, Inc. structured and placed the 2005 taxable debt. The blended interest rate on the FHA-insured notes was 6.59%.