The ceremonial opening of an affordable housing complex at a busy Yonkers intersection and a financial incentive package recently approved for private developers of another neighborhood housing complex mark progress this summer in the five-year-old, $180 million project to revitalize the city”™s blighted Ashburton Avenue corridor for businesses and residents.
At the corner of Ashburton and Nepperhan avenues, the recently completed, $24.8 million Father Pat Carroll Green development includes 62 two-family homes. Each unit contains a three-bedroom, two-bath, owner-occupied home and a two-bedroom apartment whose rental will assist homeowners with their mortgage payments.
Yonkers and Westchester County officials joined in a ribbon-cutting ceremony there July 22 with Robert M. Pascucci, president of the project developer, Yonkers Green Realty L.L.C., and Jobco Inc., the Great Neck, Long Island-based construction and development company that partnered with public and nonprofit community housing and development agencies on the 4-acre development. The long-awaited project was started by the late Rev. Patrick Carroll, former president of St. Joseph Community Housing Corp., and the late James McFadden, founder of the Association for Middle Income Housing.
The project was financed with $2.38 million from the county”™s housing implementation fund, $3.2 million in federal HOME funds and the remainder from construction loans and contributions and fees from the developer.
The purchase price for a two-family home there is $258,000. Eligible buyers must have a household income at or below 65 percent of the county”™s area median income, currently $68,445 for a family of four. Apartments will be rented to families earning 50 percent or less of the area median income, currently $52,650 for a family of four.
A few blocks away off Ashburton Avenue, demolition continues this summer on the vacated 552-unit Mulford Gardens public housing project. The 12-acre site, one of the oldest affordable housing projects, will be cleared to make way for Grant Park Apartments, a planned mixed-income neighborhood of 240 rental townhouse units and garden apartments.
Private developers in the $109.1 million project are The Richman Group Development Corp., of Greenwich, Conn., and Landex Corp., of Linthicum, Md.
The development partners late last year opened the first structure in the Ashburton Avenue revival, the 60-unit, $23 million Croton Heights Apartments, on former Yonkers Parking Authority property at 193 Ashburton Ave.
The Yonkers Industrial development Agency (IDA) this month approved an economic development package for the first phase of construction at Grant Park Apartments, which will include 100 housing units at a cost of $47 million. The IDA approved $2.36 million in sales and use tax exemptions for construction materials and equipment and a $360,000 mortgage tax exemption.
IDA officials said the first phase at Grant Park Apartments is expected to be completed in late 2010. Kristin Miller, president of Richman Group Development, could not be reached for comment on the developer”™s construction schedule and other project details.
Yonkers Mayor Philip A. Amicone, chairman of the city IDA, in a statement called the agency”™s action “another milestone in our efforts to transform and expand affordable housing for working families. For years, everyone acknowledged that Mulford Gardens represented all that is bad about affordable housing. Today with the launch of Grant Park Apartments, together with the earlier opening of Croton Heights, we are moving forward with the kind quality housing that our residents deserve.” He called the financial package “a prudent and wise investment in the future of our city.”
The Ashburton Avenue revitalization was launched by the city in 2004 with a $20 million grant through the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development”™s Hope VI program, which seeks to replace severely distressed public housing projects occupied exclusively by poor families with redesigned mixed-income housing
