Two Affordable Housing Projects Break Ground in Queens
Two adjacent housing complexes totaling 182 units and located on a vacant, New York Stat-designated Brownfield Cleanup site, broke ground in Richmond Hill, Queens, on September 7. The two projects include the 65-unit Richmond Hill Senior Living Residences and the 117-unit Richmond Place. The Arker Companies, Floral Park, N.Y. is the developer on the combined $53.9 million project.
Richmond Hill Senior Living Residences, a six-story, 62,500-sq-ft building will provide housing for elderly residents with an income below 60% of the area’s median income. The project is being financed by a combination of Low-Income Housing Credits and State Low-Income Housing Credits through the New York State Homes & Community Renewal. Bank of America will be purchasing these credits for $16.7 million as well as providing a construction loan to the Arker Companies.
Richmond Place, a seven-story, 136,300-sq-ft building will also provide housing for residents below 60% of the area’s median income and will include 13 studios, 28 one-bedroom apartments, 68 two-bedroom apartments, and 7 three-bedroom apartments. One-fifth of the units will be reserved for homeless households. The project is being developed under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan, an $8.4 billion plan to finance 165,000 affordable housing units for New Yorkers by 2014. Richmond Place will be partially financed through $17.5 million in tax-exempt bonds issued by the New York City Housing Development Corporation and will cost approximately $33.9 million to develop.
“The availability of affordable housing has decreased over the years as more high rises and luxury apartments are built across New York City,” said State Senator Shirley L. Huntley in a statement. “Maintaining and creating more affordable housing in Queens, and throughout the other four boroughs, will ensure families are not priced out of their homes and neighborhoods.”
Construction on Richmond Hill Senior Living Residences and Richmond Place is expected to be complete by December 2012.
