United Church Homes, Mission DG to Develop Older Adult Affordable Housing in Texas

United Church Homes, an Ohio-based nonprofit provider of senior living residential and healthcare services, has formed a joint venture with Mission DG, a privately-owned real estate development company specializing in multi-family and mixed-use projects. Its first project, LIV Whisper Hills in San Marcos, Texas, will provide the community with 250 affordable appartments for older adults. It is slated to open in 2022.

The joint venture was formed to fund pre-development activities for new senior affordable housing in Texas. The partnership will focus on the strengths of both organizations. Mission DG has extensive experience developing mixed-income and innovative affordable senior housing options in the San Antonio and Austin regions of Texas. United Church Homes has a long history as a top provider of senior living services and affordable housing. It will be an investment partner in several projects in the Southern Texas market.

Mission DG seeks to connect people and places to build beautiful, functional, and sustainable living environments. Mission DG teams up with both private and public partners to provide development services, construction management, and Public-Private Partnership (P3) expertise to achieve their mission of enhancing communities throughout the state of Texas through Smart Growth objectives.

Terry Spitznagel, senior vice president and chief growth officer for United Church Homes said, “In addition to our role as an investor in these senior housing communities, we will also provide the property management services. This ensures the vision that we have for senior housing with services comes to life in the day-to-day operations of each community.”

Mission DG is led by Henry Cisneros and Victor Miramontes, managing partner. Cisneros is currently chairman and a founding partner of CityView, an institutional multi-family asset management and development company that has produced over $4 Billion of urban housing units, principally in California. Cisneros Miramontes is a San Antonio based company principally investing and developing local affordable multi-family housing projects. Miramontes is the managing partner of CM DG, which in turn is the managing partner of the various real estate investment and operations entities, including Mission DG.

“We are excited to have this partnership with United Church Homes,” Mark Tolley, partner of Mission DG said. “Together, our strategic positioning in underserved markets will create value for our partners and investors through the development of projects that promote economic growth, create equitable and affordable housing opportunities and address the needs of the surrounding communities.”

Innovative project such as LIV Whisper Hills aim to provide senior housing with amenities, such as service coordination, that help people live independently longer. The partnership is also exploring opportunities to provide senior housing on college campuses.

“Our strategic growth plan is focused on partnering with subject matter experts in key areas where affordable senior housing is greatly needed,” said the Rev. Kenneth Daniel, president and chief executive officer of United Church Homes. “We are excited about this opportunity to partner with Mission DG on this and many future projects.”