Yonkers housing project could break ground this summer
A $22 million workforce housing development on the site of a former public housing complex in Yonkers moved closer to a targeted summer construction start when the Yonkers Industrial Development Agency agreed Tuesday to negotiate a payment agreement with the private developers in place of property taxes.
The project, Grant Park II, is the second phase of the redevelopment of the former Mulford Gardens site in the city”™s Ashburton Avenue corridor by the Richman Group Development Corp., based in Greenwich, Conn., and Landex Cos., based in Linthicum, Md. The developers are working in partnership with the Yonkers Municipal Housing Authority.
The first phase of the Grant Park project, completed in 2012, includes 100 apartments. Grant Park II, to be built along Loehr Place and Whetstone Avenue, will include 56Â one-, two- and three-bedroom rental units in two four-story buildings.
As part of the city”™s plan to revitalize the Ashburton Avenue neighborhood and business sector, Â Richman Group and Landex also have opened Park Terrace and Park Vista near the Grant Park site, adding 109 apartments to the city”™s housing stock for families and senior citizens.
IDA directors authorized a per-unit payment to the city for Grant Park II to be negotiated with the developers. City officials said the board”™s action allows the project to move forward. It will create 40 temporary jobs during a 16-month construction period.
Yonkers officials said the rental units will be available to households earning at or below 60 percent of the area median income determined by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano, who also heads the IDA board, said the apartments will be “geared towards people whose incomes are very typical for the area, but who often cannot find housing at an affordable rate. Decent jobs and decent housing need to go hand-in-hand, so this is an important step forward for Yonkers, and for the Ashburton Avenue corridor in particular.”
Kenneth Jenkins, president of the Yonkers Industrial Development Agency, said the workforce housing “improves a neighborhood and the city in every way. If Mulford Gardens was an example of how to do housing badly, Grant Park II and its predecessors are an example of how to do it well.”