‘You Couldn’t Ask For A Better Place’: PMG’s Head Of Affordable On How Tampa Is Leading The Pack In Affordable Housing

While the lack of affordable housing impacts almost every city in America, some areas are doing more to address this crisis than others.

In Tampa, for example, city officials have created multiple avenues to help locals navigate the affordable housing market while the city focuses on the long-term goal of developing more homes. These services include the Tenant Services Team — which helps with rental assistance, legal services and more — and a housing information line people can call to learn more about the options available to them. 

Tampa’s demonstrated commitment to affordable housing inspires Dan Coakley, principal of PMG Affordable, the affordable arm of national investment, development and asset management firm PMG. Speaking with Bisnow, Coakley explained how PMG partners with the Tampa Housing Authority to help the city reach its goal of providing quality affordable housing to all residents and how PMG is looking for “large, transformative” opportunities in the area. 

Coakley will speak at Bisnow’s Multifamily Annual Conference Event in Tampa on March 30, where he will offer his thoughts on the state of affordable housing in Tampa and discuss new developments PMG is working on. Other topics that will be covered at the event include the single-family rental and build-to-rent markets in Tampa, investment opportunities in the area and how to prepare for a possible recession. Click here to register and learn more.

Bisnow sat down with Coakley to learn more about why he chose to speak at this event and why PMG is committed to helping boost the availability of affordable and workforce housing in Tampa. 

Bisnow: What inspired you to speak at Bisnow’s Multifamily Annual Conference? 

Coakley: I am very familiar with Bisnow events and think the conferences are great. I typically do not go to conferences because we’re just so busy, but I thought this one would be a great opportunity to speak about the importance of affordable and workforce housing and highlight how cities like Tampa are doing things right.

Bisnow: What will you be speaking about at the event? 

Coakley: I will speak to the current state of affordable and workforce housing in Florida. Specifically, I plan to touch on why the crisis is getting worse, what needs to happen for the state to start developing larger amounts of affordable units more quickly and how the work the city of Tampa and the Tampa Housing Authority is doing to address this problem is on the cutting edge. Other cities are following in the footsteps of Tampa, bringing in private partners like PMG to help them redevelop older buildings into workforce and affordable housing, and the results have been overwhelmingly positive.

Bisnow: Can you describe your role at PMG and what you're working on? 

Coakley: I am the principal heading PMG affordable, which is part of the overall PMG corporate umbrella. PMG has a more than 30-year history as a major multifamily developer, and our subsidiary company focuses on building affordable, workforce and attainably priced market-rate housing in large-scale mixed-income developments.

We are currently Tampa Housing Authority’s co-development partner, along with Banc of America Community Development Co., on the transformational redevelopment of Robles Park Village, an existing 432-unit outdated public housing complex. The goal of this project is to create over 1,400 new high-quality residential units, the majority of which will be affordable and workforce, as well as to reimagine how critical services and opportunities can be brought to the center of the community. This will likely be an eight- to 10-year development project, which is very much in line with our company business plan because we are looking to pursue large, multiphase transformative opportunities. 

We plan to continue partnering with cities and local housing authorities to create these types of large-scale affordable projects and are pursuing projects in Nashville, Palm Beach County, North Charleston and in major markets along the East Coast and in the Southeast and Texas. 

Bisnow: When it comes to multifamily development in Tampa, what role is affordable housing playing? Is there a sufficient number of projects in the pipeline to meet the demand? 

Coakley: The great thing about Tampa is that the city’s mayor, Jane Castor, has made affordable housing one of her top priorities by setting the ambitious goal of delivering 10,000 new affordable units in the near term. When you have a city government that is behind the cause, it makes it easier to get things done. 

In Tampa, you also have one of the most sophisticated and well-regarded housing authorities in the country working to bring more affordable and workforce housing to the city. However, it is still going to be a long time before the supply will match the demand, especially when there are probably 10,000 to 20,000 units needed to make a meaningful dent.

You can’t really develop enough affordable housing right now when the demand is so staggering. However, Tampa is doing everything it can, using its own land and its own resources — you really couldn’t ask for a better place to try and close this gap or for a better partner.

Bisnow: How is PMG working to provide Tampa with more affordable housing? 

Coakley: We have spent a lot of time in Tampa and we love the area and its pro-affordable housing dynamics. Beyond that, Tampa is a very attractive place to develop multifamily in general, given its continued and projected population and job growth.

We have been working with the city, the Housing Authority, community partners and other stakeholders to help the city reach its goal of creating more affordable housing, and we look forward to continuing to do so for years to come. 

To hear more of Coakley’s thoughts on affordable housing and PMG’s plan for Tampa, register for Bisnow’s Multifamily Annual Conference Event in Tampa on March 30.

This article was produced in collaboration between Studio B and Property Markets Group. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to [email protected].