Pueblo commissioners weigh rolling private activity bonds to fund Tava Square 108-unit affordable housing project

Pueblo County commissioners discussed on Aug. 5 whether to roll the county’s 2025 private activity bond (PAB) allocation to Tava Square, a proposed 108-unit affordable housing development on Pueblo’s West side, during a Board of County Commissioners work session.

The request came from Ashley Winans, senior development manager for Rocky Mountain Communities, who said the nonprofit is seeking assigned PABs to support a 4% Low-Income Housing Tax Credit application in a noncompetitive round. “We are looking at a project on the West Side Of Pueblo to develop, a 108 new affordable housing units,” Winans said, and described staging the development in two phases with a community center and resident services between phases.

Private activity bonds are important to the project because they lower long-term financing costs; Winans told the board that, with current interest rates, those bonds “help us to be able to actually make the project work.” Tammy Torres, a county director who answered technical questions about allocations, said the county’s yearly PAB allocation is computed at $100 to $125 per capita and that Pueblo’s current 2025 allocation is about $3.4 million to $3.7 million. Torres explained the county’s options: assign PABs to a project, roll the allocation over to the next year for a named project, or relinquish them to the state; she said any decision must be completed by Sept. 15 or the funds automatically return to the state.

Winans described the Tava Square concept as a modular, two-phase multifamily development on a land-lease site at 20 Fourth Street. The developer’s current plan calls for 108 units in phase one — 21 one-bedroom, 32 two-bedroom, 43 three-bedroom and 16 four-bedroom units — with a second phase adding about 92 units later for a roughly 200-unit total. Winans said the project’s overall budget is about $40,000,000 and that Rocky Mountain Communities would seek what she described as approximately $15 million to $20 million in PAB support to make the financing stack work.

Winans said project rents are planned to average at or below 60% of area median income (AMI), with her model running near 55% AMI; she characterized those rents as roughly 20%–30% below market in Pueblo. She also said the development would include required Americans with Disabilities Act–accessible units (about 10% of units) and that tenants could use housing choice vouchers if eligible.

Commissioners asked procedural and portfolio questions about PAB use. One commissioner said, “We like the expediency,” and another asked whether the project would proceed without county-assigned bonds; Winans replied that the developer would still pursue a 4% plus state LIHTC application in August but that assigned PABs strengthen the financing and lower interest costs. Torres said the county has, in past years, typically assigned its allocation to the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA) for single-family programs and that some previous Pueblo projects received PABs through other statewide balances.

Commissioners indicated they expect to decide quickly. Torres said a decision “probably in the next week, week to 10 days would probably be better.” Board members also requested that staff check details about earlier county allocations and confirm the mechanics and limits of carrying over the 2025 allocation to 2026, including whether the county can pivot the carryover to a different but similar project if a named project fails to proceed.

No formal allocation motion or final vote on the Tava Square PAB request occurred during the work session. The board did vote to enter executive session at the end of the meeting for a previously cited reason.

Next steps described on the record: Rocky Mountain Communities will continue its application process; county staff said they will seek updates on prior PAB usage, consult with bond counsel about the rollover process, and bring recommendations back to the commissioners before the Sept. 15 deadline.