Yonkers public housing redevelopment breaks ground
The Community Builders Inc., a nonprofit developer of mixed-income housing, and the Yonkers Municipal Housing Authority broke ground Monday on the $27 million second phase of the redevelopment of the city”™s Cottage Place Gardens housing complex in southwest Yonkers.
City officials said the project will create 51 affordable rental apartments in a 62,000-square-foot, energy-efficient building at 188 Warburton Ave. that will replace two deteriorated buildings in the complex. The project is expected to generate 100 construction jobs.
The public housing complex on Warburton Avenue is being redeveloped in a six-phase initiative by the city and its private development partner, Boston-based Community Builders. The first phase, the $63 million Schoolhouse Terrace development on Ashburton Avenue, broke ground in 2013 and will be completed by April, according to city officials.
City officials said significant funding for the 188 Warburton Ave. project came from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development”™s Low Income Housing Tax Credits program, which provides tax incentives for the use of private equity in affordable housing developments.
Joseph Shuldiner, executive director of the Municipal Housing Authority, said the Cottage Place Gardens project is part of the city”™s ongoing redevelopment of the Ashburton Avenue corridor. That effort to revitalize the Ashburton Avenue neighborhood and business and traffic corridor has included the demolition and redevelopment of another public housing complex, Mulford Gardens. “With this project, we have 227 new units of housing and $100 million in construction,” Shuldiner said in a press release.
Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano at the groundbreaking ceremony said the city and its federal, state, private and community partners are “building a stronger, a more sustainable community for residents.”
City officials said the third phase of the Cottage Place gardens redevelopment effort will create 72 workforce housing units.