Real Estate Development

Isles’ Real Estate Department provides the “bricks and mortar” part of Isles’ mission of fostering self-reliant families in healthy, sustainable communities. It builds the homes that families will occupy.

Isles has been involved in real estate development in Trenton for 15 years. Beginning in 1993, working closely with the City of Trenton and using a combination of city, state and federal funding, Isles rehabbed city-owned properties to provide affordable housing for city residents. Isles creates homeownership opportunities for low-and moderate-income families, and has developed approximately 165 units of owner-occupied affordable housing in Trenton.

In addition to the homeownership units, Isles has participated in several tax credit projects that have created an additional 200 units of affordable rental housing in the Old Trenton Neighborhood.

The Real Estate Department works with the city to identify properties that could be redeveloped to provide affordable homeownership opportunities. Once Isles receives site control of the properties, work begins with various sources to obtain the necessary funding to make projects possible. This typically involves some combination of federal, state and local funding as well as private bank financing. Public funding subsidizes the actual construction costs so that properties can be sold at a price affordable to low-and moderate-income buyers. In return for the subsidies from various funding sources, these properties are sold with deed restrictions that ensure that they will be occupied by income-eligible buyers for at least 15 years or more.

The buyers of these properties must meet income guidelines published by New Jersey’s Council on Affordable Housing (COAH). The income limits are based on family size and are a percentage of median income for the county. In addition, the buyers must have sufficiently good credit to obtain a mortgage.

The Real Estate Department works closely with Isles’ Financial Self-Reliance Department prior to closing to provide homebuyer education classes and assistance with applying for and obtaining a mortgage. Isles continues working with buyers after closing to provide training in home maintenance and asset protection.

Isles’ Real Estate Department is dedicated to providing sustainable, high performing housing that is energy-efficient, durable, conserves resources at every stage of development and operation, and focuses on healthy indoor air quality. Moreover, Isles’ housing product, whether new construction or rehabilitation, is superior to the typical market rate housing unit. By this means, both the operating and maintenance costs of the housing are minimized, and the physical health and well-being of occupants are maximized. Low-and moderate-income residents of Isles’ housing are thereby provided the best chance of success at homeownership and the greatest opportunity to grow their assets and build wealth.

In 2007, Isles renovated six historic structures for homeownership in the Old Trenton Neighborhood. As a result of Isles’ real estate projects, six families now occupy affordable homes that were once abandoned and dangerous dwellings in the community.