By JIM BUTLER

An affordable housing enterprise proposes building a 90-unit apartment development in Alexandria.

Bayou Red River Apartments would be located 3875 Sugarhouse Road.

Developers are seeking Community Block Development Grant funding through the Louisiana Housing Corporation.

CBDG projects are funded on a competitive basis.

Bayou Red River would have one-, two- and three-bedroom units.

Total development cost is calculated at $32.8 million.

The proposed financing package includes $6.5 million in tax-exempt bonds, $14.6 million in CDBG Disaster Recovery grant funding and $11 million in federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit equity.

LIHTC is the primary federal program for encouraging investment of private equity in development of affordable rental housing for low-income tenants.

Renters of such housing must be at or below 60 percent of the area median income where the development occurs.

Under the program corporate investors get a 10-year federal tax credit and tax losses in exchange for up-front capital contribution toward an equity position in owning new-construction and/or rehabilitation affordable housing.

The equity-credits program has been in place about 40 years.