Osprey Property Company of Annapolis, MD received the Commitment to Excellence Award for Rental Housing for the rehabilitation of the Bay Country Apartments in Cambridge, MD at the 2004 Governor’s Housing Conference on November 16, 2004. The Award recognizes projects and programs that further the Department of Housing and Community Development’s mission to revitalize communities, encourage homeownership, expand affordable housing opportunities and enhance Maryland’s historic sites and traditions. Co-developers Bill Hazlehurst of Bolton Properties and Eva Coale and Lydia Clark from Osprey accepted the award from Victor L. Hoskins, Secretary of the MD Department of Housing and Community Development.
Bay Country is a 144 unit multifamily apartment community that was purchased and renovated with over $24 million in public and private investment. This type of partnership is a cornerstone of the state’s affordable housing initiatives which funds rehabilitation projects for physical property improvements and mandates effective resident services programs for social well-being and financial advancement.
By utilizing housing tax credits, bonds, rental housing funds, CDBG and other state and local funding, Property Company has been successful in developing over 1,300 units affordable multifamily and senior communities in the Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and Florida.
Over 1,100 affordable housing professionals attended The Second Annual Governor’s Conference on Housing in Maryland. Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. is a proponent of affordable housing and is a priority of his Administration. In March 2004, Governor Ehrlich signed an executive order establishing the Governor’s Commission on Housing Policy, which charged the commissioners with “making recommendations for specific and measurable actions that can be taken to increase and preserve quality affordable housing in Maryland communities to meet the needs, as well as dreams, of working families, individuals with disabilities, the homeless and the elderly.”