Redevelopment of Yonkers housing complex enters new phase

Despite the disruptions to daily life caused by the Covid pandemic, the six-phase $296 million master plan to redevelop the Cottage Place public housing complex in Yonkers has continued to make progress with the recent closing on financing for phase five of the multiyear project.

The overall project will create more than 500 new and renovated apartments in a southwest Yonkers neighborhood that”™s along Warburton Avenue and somewhat north of Ashburton Avenue and south of Lamartine. More than 240 units have been completed so far.

Phase five involves creating a $56 million eight-story complex of 81 apartments known as 178 Warburton at The Ridgeway.

The development is by the Municipal Housing Authority for the City of Yonkers (MHACY), which has a property portfolio valued at $750 million, and The Community Builders (TCB), a nonprofit real estate developer that owns or manages more than 13,000 apartments in 14 states.

“The whole area of Warburton that it is replacing has been radically changed,” Wilson Kimball, president and CEO of MHACY told the Business Journal. “In almost all of the cases the buildings were demolished.” She said some residents were moved into different apartments at Cottage Place Gardens and then moved back after construction had been completed while others were given Section 8 vouchers and allowed to move to different properties.

“The tenants who are living in the new buildings love it there. They love the amenities, they love the way the buildings look, they love the finishes and they love the fact that this is a brand new housing complex,” Kimball said.

Cottage Place Gardens, a public housing project that was built in 1945, had 256 apartments. The phase-five 178 Warburton building replaces Cottage Place”™s buildings 4, 8 and 12 and a commercial space that had been a gas station. Among those funding phase five are MHACY, TCB, the city of Yonkers, the Westchester County Housing Implementation Fund, Community Capital New York and a number of New York state resources.

Sue McCann, senior vice president of TCB in charge of development in New York and New Jersey, told the Business Journal that the developer found the location in Yonkers to be especially attractive in view of the proximity to New York City.

“Its one of our favorite projects because it”™s really transformative,” McCann said. “We saw that there was much potential there and it just needed a little rethinking of the way that neighborhood had historically been laid out. When we originally planned for this site we didn”™t know that the properties across the street from us that had been known popularly in Yonkers as ”˜The Chicken Coops”™ on the west side of Warburton would become available to us so it was opportunistic that we were able to buy those and add them into the development and provide better living opportunities for those folks as well.”

McCann said that TCB”™s design for the housing is a sharp break from the utilitarianism that makes some public housing projects of the 1940s and ”™50s look sparse and grim today.

“We are able to produce a real high-quality product that any middle-class person would be happy to live in,” McCann said. “People are living here because of the affordable rents and they seem quite pleased. Seniors tend not to want to move from where they are currently living and so the seniors who moved into the building that was just for the elderly in our first phase, some of them can”™t believe how nice it is.”

Apartments at 178 Warburton will include Energy Star appliances, dishwashers and microwaves. There will be a fitness center, rooftop meeting space and lounge and free parking. The building will have green elements, including plumbing fixtures that conserve water and solar panels to generate some of the building”™s electricity. There also will be an Early Head Start daycare center operated by the Westchester Community Opportunity Program Inc. The mix of units is set at six studios, 35 one-bedrooms and 40 two-bedrooms.

McCann said that in addition to the Yonkers project, TCB is involved with two other projects, one in the Bronx and another in Queens. She also said that the company would like to do a project in northern Westchester and has met with officials in one of the towns.

Praise from elected officials

Elected officials have welcomed the progress made in the Cottage Place Gardens project.

Westchester County Executive George Latimer said, “The Covid-19 pandemic has already put a tremendous strain on some of our most vulnerable communities and projects like The Ridgeway, which will serve a mix of incomes, show that we are moving in the right direction.”

Yonkers”™ Mayor Mike Spano said, “This new phase of Cottage Place Garden”™s redevelopment points to the positive momentum happening right now in Yonkers as we revitalize our neighborhoods and improve the lives of residents who live here.”

Kimball, who previously was the city”™s planning commissioner, had this take: “Every home that is made better for a family or an individual or a senior in Yonkers is a huge improvement in the life of that family or that senior or that individual and for the life of the neighborhood and greater community. Our effort now that we”™re coming into phase five is really about quality of life, bringing it up to a better level than it ever was before.”

Kimball said that an important lesson to be learned from the ongoing remaking of the Cottage Place area is that municipalities should not be afraid of long-term projects, even those lasting a decade.

“One of the positive messages from Cottage Place Gardens is also that you can have a mix of incomes and that mix of incomes makes the housing richer and better for everyone,” Kimball said.

“It shouldn”™t be all one income of any kind. Mixing incomes is great. I think we”™re seeing that in Yonkers and Westchester where affordable housing ordinances are providing a minimum of 10% affordable housing within market-rate projects.”

Kimball said she anticipates that MHACY will have additional rehabilitation and new construction projects on its plate.

“We”™re willing and able to talk to developers across the spectrum, whether they”™re doing new buildings or they”™re renovating. We”™re very interested in expanding our partnership portfolio and also building our own,” Kimball said.