Following months of negotiations and an impasse, the Urban League of Middle Tennessee and a Texas developer reached a long-term agreement promising affordable housing in a project replacing the RiverChase apartment complex.

Cypress Real Estate Advisors will commit one-fifth of the mixed-use project's 1,150 units as qualified affordable housing.

Under the terms of the community benefits agreement, the development is set to include a total of 120 units at 30%, 60% and 80% of the area's median income (AMI) by working with nonprofit and Low-Income Housing Tax Credit developers.

CREA has also committed to building 25 units at 120% AMI, and 80 units at 80% AMI, without subsidies during the first phase of development that otherwise are set to be market-rate units.

“We are thrilled to work with the Urban League and build a partnership that will provide a model for how private residential developers can bring substantial solutions to Nashville’s affordability crisis,” said CREA principal Victor Young in a statement.

A previous attempt by a coalition of local union groups to set up a community benefits agreement with CREA collapsed in June over unit affordability issues. Stand Up Nashville and several other union and neighborhood groups pushed for more affordable units to be available at or below 65% AMI.

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The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development recently estimated the Greater Nashville's AMI for fiscal year 2022 is $96,719, a number calculated using family incomes from the Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Murfreesboro, Williamson County and surrounding cities.

As Nashville's cost of living continues to rise while the city's wages remain stagnant, Stand Up Nashville warns that the city's lack of affordable housing has exceeded beyond a mere threat.

"It's an active, all-out emergency for anyone in Davidson County who makes less than $100,000," a June statement from the neighborhood group said.

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The partnership between the groups and CREA came after nearly a year-old plan to redevelop RiverChase, the 212-unit McFerrin Park complex. Other components of the agreement include:

• The creation of a "legacy residents" initiative that will enable qualifying RiverChase residents to return to the new development upon its completion.

• Continued funding of a financial assistance initiative to cover residents' relocation costs. The financial package includes $2,200 in relocation assistance for occupants of each unit, a full refund of any security deposit, a $500 move-out allowance and payment for each resident's security deposit and first-month rent directly to a new property.

• An expansion of walkable greenspace in the new 1,150-unit development, including an improved bicycle-friendly streetscape surrounding the development.

• A $2.5 million investment in public infrastructure upgrades along Dickerson Pike.

• A $40,000 donation to the McFerrin Park Neighborhood Association and $100,000 donation for neighborhood traffic calming.

Jackie Sims, executive director of People’s Alliance for Transit, Housing and Employment, applauded CREA's financial assistance program as a step toward solving Nashville's affordability crisis.

“This entire initiative should be held up as the playbook for how private developers can be successful for themselves, their investors and for those who live around their project sites," Sims said.

As of last week, about 19 residents remained at the complex. The windows and doors of vacated units have been boarded up.

The RiverChase apartments were protected by Low-Income Housing Tax Credits until about 2017, when the then-owners filed to return the low-income rental property to market rates, according to District 5 Council member Sean Parker.

What set the 212 units apart was, despite being rented at market rate, they were accessible to people who may have evictions on their records or other barriers to traditional housing.

Even as the condition of the decades-old buildings worsened, the RiverChase apartments provided a belt of increasingly scarce affordable housing near Nashville's downtown.

To establish a local collaborative team and advance the resident financial support program, CREA engaged Nashville organizations, including PATHE, the Salvation Army, Urban Housing Solutions, Affordable Housing Resources, the Urban League of Middle Tennessee, and the McFerrin Park Neighborhood Association.

The community benefits agreement is the second of its kind in Nashville, following Stand Up Nashville's agreement with Nashville S.C. for the Geodis Stadium development.

Cassandra Stephenson contributed to this report. 

Arcelia Martin covers growth and development for the Tennessean, a part of The USA TODAY Network. Reach Arcelia at amartin1@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @arcelitamartin. 

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: RiverChase apartments redevelopment deal promises 225 affordable units