“Attainable” housing is the most in-demand housing type, yet it rarely grabs headlines — or gets built.
According to the commercial real estate research firms Yardi Matrix and CoStar, more than 90% of the rental units being built in the Phoenix area are financially feasible for only the roughly top 20% income bracket, while about 5% of rental units being built are government-subsidized “affordable” housing.
As co-founders and partners at Greenlight Communities, we are successfully working to meet the demands of those seeking attainable housing — which we define as non-subsidized housing that is affordable to household incomes between 60% and 120% of the area’s median income — thanks to strategic land acquisition, resourceful development practices and modern construction techniques.
Greenlight has constructed more than 2,000 attainable units to date and will have nearly 5,000 units constructed by 2025 to help meet the need in Arizona. The total cost of our efforts is approximately $1 billion.
We are able to keep costs down because Greenlight Construction is Greenlight Communities’ in-house contractor on all projects, which allows us to control costs and timelines with complete oversight of our mission from beginning to end. We have adopted large-scale efficient building techniques for our floor plans and unit layouts. We implement forward-thinking efficiencies in mechanical and electrical plumbing systems. We build modern communities with the amenities our renters want but leave out the excessive amenities that would needlessly drive up costs and monthly rents.
Under the brand name Cabana, Greenlight has completed four new attainable rental projects thus far. An additional two communities are currently leasing in Goodyear and Glendale, Cabana Encanto and Cabana 99th. We also have four Cabana communities under construction in Goodyear, Phoenix, Mesa and Tucson and nearly a dozen in the pipeline. Our new “Streamliner” apartments, debuting later this year, will offer even more affordable options in Arizona neighborhoods where they are needed most.
Pat Watts and Rob Lyles are the owners of Greenlight Communities.
