Demolition work has begun at the site of a $58 million development to replace a long-vacant Yonkers public school with a 121-unit mixed-income apartment complex for families and senior citizens.
Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano and state officials recently joined officials from The Community Builders Inc. (TCB), the project”™s nonprofit developer, and the Yonkers Municipal Housing Authority for the start of demolition of Public School 6 at 33 Ashburton Ave. The deteriorated school will be replaced by Schoolhouse Terrace at Croton Heights.
The project, to be built according to environmental sustainability standards, will include a 70-unit building for families earning under 30 percent of the area median income (AMI) to under 60 percent of AMI. A 50-unit building will house senior citizens earning less than 50 percent of AMI. The new buildings will sit atop two underground garages with 134 parking spaces.
Jan Brodie, Northeast regional director for TCB, said the developer “is committed to creating mixed-income housing as a platform for opportunity in Yonkers.” The project, financed in part by TCB”™s neighborhood stabilization program funds, is scheduled for completion in 2014.
Also financing the project are state and federal agencies and their funding programs and banks that include RBC Capital, Bank of New York, M&T Bank and Federal Home Loan Bank of New York.
The project has been awarded two state grants totaling about $2.5 million for demolition at the brownfield site and $600,000 in low-income housing tax credits from the state Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) agency.
Darryl C. Towns, HCR commissioner and CEO, credited the governor-appointed Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council for its award of “critical financing” for the Yonkers redevelopment.
