Community Builders opens $27 million, 55-unit apartment building in Yonkers

The Community Builders Inc. has opened a $27 million, 55-unit apartment complex at 188 Warburton Ave. in Yonkers. The nonprofit developer of mixed-income housing and the Municipal Housing Authority held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday.

“Today”™s opening points to the positive momentum occurring right now in Yonkers as we revitalize our neighborhoods and improve the lives of the residents who live here,” Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano said. “We are building a stronger, a more sustainable community for residents thanks to the support of our federal, state, private and our local community partners … and we look forward to the great improvements that will be made to this very deserving neighborhood.”

The five-story building replaced two distressed buildings at the Cottage Place Gardens public housing complex and remediated a contaminated brownfield as part of a broader effort to revitalize Southwest Yonkers. New trees and landscaping, a private courtyard, community spaces on the ground level, and the acquisition and development of vacant property along Warburton Avenue reinvigorates pedestrian activity and reconnects the property to the street grid, according to a press release.

The 188 Warburton development is the second phase of a six-phase initiative aimed at redeveloping the Cottage Place Gardens public housing complex and revitalizing Southwest Yonkers. The first phase, $63 million Schoolhouse Terrace development on Ashburton Avenue, was completed in April 2015. The third phase is 70 apartment units at 209 Warburton Ave., which is expected to break ground in spring 2017.

Funding for 188 Warburton came from Low Income Housing Tax Credits, New York State Housing Finance Agency, City of Yonkers, Municipal Housing Authority for the City of Yonkers, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, The Community Builders and Community Capital New York.