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Columbia Business Monthly

The Business Narrative: Affordable Housing Portfolio

Jan 21, 2025 10:07AM ● By Donna Walker

American South Capital Partners, Infinity Real Estate Partners Form Financing Partnership to Acquire More Than 1,000 Units of Low-Income Housing in Carolinas

(123rf.com Image)

 

Infinity Real Estate Partners has received an $18.75 million investment from American South Capital Partners ("ASCP"), a joint venture of SDS Capital Group and Vintage Realty Company, for acquisition and renovation of a 1,068-unit affordable housing portfolio with assets located in North Carolina and South Carolina.

 

The portfolio consists of seven communities built between 1968 and 1973 ranging in size from 81 to 200 units, 95 percent of which are governed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Housing Assistance Program:

 

Boulder Creek, Greenville, SC

Crescent Hill Apartments, Spartanburg, SC

Roosevelt Gardens, Orangeburg, SC

Spring Grove Apartments, Taylors, SC

Cedar Moor Apartments, Raleigh, NC

Timber Ridge, Charlotte, NC

Brentwood Crossing, High Point, NC.

 

Approximately 25 percent of renters in each of these markets are severely rent burdened having to pay as much as 50 percent of their income on rent, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

 

Infinity will use a portion of the investment to fund interior and exterior improvements across the portfolio including new appliances, cabinets and flooring.

 

So as not to displace tenants, Infinity will complete the renovations while units are occupied.

 

In addition to new security systems, Infinity also will address deferred maintenance repairing or replacing roofs, air conditioning and plumbing as needed.

 

Upon completion, 100 percent of the units will be affordable to individuals and families earning 60 percent or less of the area median income ("AMI"), qualifying the investment for 100 percent of Community Reinvestment Act Credit.

 

Additionally, through its nonprofit partner Mercy Housing, each property will have a dedicated community coordinator that works with local organizations to provide supplemental services like after school care, financial literacy, and resume services for tenants.

 

ASCP invests in affordable housing real estate projects located in 10 Southern states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas).

 

ASCP funds have collectively committed more than $176 million to 26 projects, financing more than 7,025 housing units – 82 percent of them affordable to families at less than 80 percent of the AMI.

 

American South Capital Partners is a joint venture between Los Angeles-based impact fund manager SDS Capital Group (www.sds.capital) and Vintage Realty Company, a Shreveport, Louisiana-based property developer/manager (www.vintagerealty.com).

 

Infinity is an independent, privately owned alternative investment manager based in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Ingevity Announces Plans to Explore Strategic Alternatives for Performance Chemicals Industrial Specialties Product Line, North Charleston CTO Refinery 

Ingevity Corporation (NYSE: NGVT) announced Jan. 16, 2025, that it is exploring strategic alternatives for the company’s Performance Chemicals Industrial Specialties product line, including a potential divestiture of portions of its North Charleston site.

 

Ingevity noted that this process includes all Industrial Specialties pine chemical-based chemistries that serve the paper chemical, rubber, adhesive, oilfield, lubricants and industrial intermediate end-use markets, and the North Charleston, South Carolina, crude tall oil refinery.

 

Officials said the process won’t include the Performance Chemicals Road Technologies product line, nor certain lignin-based products that are currently reported in Ingevity’s Industrial Specialties product line.

 

“Ingevity’s management team and Board are committed to taking aggressive action to deliver more shareholder value,” Luis Fernandez-Moreno, Ingevity interim president and CEO, said in a statement.

 

Fernandez-Moreno added, “Over the last fifteen months, we have undertaken a series of initiatives to improve the performance of our business, in particular our Performance Chemicals segment. These initiatives are already leading to improved results, as demonstrated by the sequential segment EBITDA margin improvement realized during the second half of 2024.”

 

“Exiting most of the Industrial Specialties product line will strengthen the Performance Chemicals segment further and enable us to focus our attention on higher growth and higher margin opportunities within our portfolio while improving the company’s earnings and cash flow profile,” continued Fernandez-Moreno.

 

“We are continuing to evaluate the rest of the Ingevity portfolio and remain committed to taking appropriate actions, including ensuring our cost structure is aligned with our objective of being a specialty chemicals leader. We believe we will be well positioned for profitable growth and value creation beginning in 2025,” said Fernandez-Moreno.

GreenGasUSA, Pilgrim’s Pride Announce Commissioning of Sumter RNG Project

GreenGasUSA and Pilgrim’s Pride announced Jan. 15, 2025, the commissioning of a renewable natural gas (RNG) project at Pilgrim’s poultry processing facility in Sumter, South Carolina.

 

Leadership from both companies were joined by representatives of Gov. Henry McMaster’s and U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman’s offices, as well as members of the local business community to celebrate the collaboration and the dedicated investment in renewable energy technologies in South Carolina.

 

The project is expected to inject RNG into the pipeline by the end of the month.

 

At the Pilgrim’s Sumter processing facility, GreenGas is building upon existing methane capture capabilities and investment to convert biogas from wastewater streams, upgrading the biogas to pipeline quality RNG.

 

The collaboration is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the Sumter facility while improving wastewater operations, as well as local air and water quality.

 

GreenGas CEO and Founder Marc Fetten said, “This project represents another significant win for South Carolina agriculture and industry and our environment. It is a demonstration of industries coming together and leading our collective journey into a lower carbon future while creating economic and environmental benefits for our communities.

 

Fetten added, “The renewable energy produced at this project is enough to power almost all the homes of the entire workforce working at the Pilgrim's Sumter plant, and is produced from what, until recently, was simply a waste stream.”

 

The Sumter RNG project is the first operational site under a strategic partnership between the two companies focused on the adoption of circular economy technologies and repurposing of waste streams into renewable energy.

 

South Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture Hugh Weathers said, “Projects like the collaboration between Pilgrim’s Pride and GreenGasUSA at the Sumter facility enable participation from the agricultural sector in the circular economy.”

 

Weathers added, “I am encouraged that South Carolina has emerged as a hub for partnerships that leverage the expertise and practices of traditional industries – like farming – to produce high-quality renewable energy products.”

 

GreenGasUSA and Pilgrim’s Pride parent company JBS are developing and constructing additional RNG projects located at processing facilities across the U.S.

 

“Pilgrim's is committed to embedding sustainability in our business," said Pilgrim's CEO Fabio Sandri. "Our partnership with GreenGasUSA in Sumter is a prime example of how Pilgrim's can implement innovative solutions to reduce our GHG footprint and unlock value for our business. Given these efforts, we can strengthen America's food supply and create a better future for our communities where we operate."

 

GreenGasUSA partners with global businesses to help reduce their environmental footprint by producing renewable natural gas and other renewable products, like carbon dioxide (CO2), clean water, and agricultural nutrients.

 

GreenGasUSA’s wastewater and engineering experts design and permit comprehensive biogas solutions including, biogas capture, anaerobic digestion, gas flaring, compression, transportation, and pipeline injection.

 

GreenGasUSA has six operational RNG facilities, and one CO2 facility, and is actively developing additional RNG and CO2 facilities across the U.S.

 

As a global food company with more than 62,000 team members, Pilgrim's processes, prepares, packages, and delivers fresh, frozen, and value-added food products for customers in more than 100 countries.

 

The company operates protein processing plants and prepared foods facilities in 14 states, Puerto Rico, Mexico, the U.K, the Republic of Ireland and continental Europe.

Immigration Fuels U.S. Population Growth in 2024

The U.S. population grew by 1.0 percent in 2024, marking the strongest population expansion since 2001, according to a report from Wells Fargo economists Charlie Dougherty and Jackie Benson and economic analyst Ali Hajibeigi.

 

 They said an uptick from natural causes (i.e. births net of deaths) made a small positive contribution, but immigration drove the bulk of the increase.

 

According to their report:

The United States added 2.8 million international migrants on net in 2024, the highest annual total on record. Most new immigrants settled in large states such as Florida, California, Texas, New York and New Jersey.

 

Meanwhile, domestic residents continued to leave expensive areas for more affordable locations across the Sunbelt and Mountain West. However, the pace of inter-state movement continued to normalize down from the pandemic.

 

Overall, net domestic migration registered its slowest pace since 2013. Notably, domestic migration cooled in hotspots like Florida and Texas and was less of a drag on growth in New York and California.

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