Boston-based nonprofit Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) made one of "The 13 Most Creative Deals of 2009," when it acquired five affordable housing complexes in Florida.

Apartment Finance Today magazine recognized the group for its $49 million purchase of 846 units, according to a statement.

"The 2009 deals of the year exhibit a certain stubborn resolve and on-the-fly ingenuity that refused to concede defeat, despite the worst recession in years," the magazine said in naming the 13 winners.

POAH operates 6,470 affordable rental units for the elderly, disabled and low-income working families in Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, according to a statement.

The group acquired the properties from Greater Miami Neighborhoods, a Florida-based nonprofit. Two of the properties were at risk of conversion to market-rate housing, and the others were at risk of falling into deeper disrepair, according to a statement.

The seller and POAH worked collaboratively to orchestrate a court-supervised bankruptcy disposition process. POAH structured the earnest money deposits on the property to fund the seller’s operations, keeping it operating on a skeleton crew which permitted a Chapter 11 (restructuring) bankruptcy rather than a Chapter 7 (liquidation) bankruptcy, according to a statement.