Affordable Senior Housing Project Wraps Up in NYC
Foxy Management and Alembic Community Development built the Bronx project, 1880 Boston Road, in conjunction with city organizations. The 168-unit property has a price tag of about $77.8 million.
1880 Boston Road. Image courtesy of Google Maps
Developers have wrapped up work on a 168-unit affordable senior housing property in the West Farms neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City. The eight-story development at 1880 Boston Road sits atop an existing medical office building and will provide affordable apartments for low-income seniors, including the formerly homeless.
READ ALSO: New Affordable Senior Housing Coming to Bronx, Brooklyn
The project was built by Foxy Management in concert with Alembic Community Development as the equity investor. Nonprofit senior care provider The Hebrew Home at Riverdale also joined the project along with an array of city organizations, including the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). The development has a price tag of $77.8 million, according to the Foxy Management website.
The community provides a mix of studio and one-bedroom homes for 167 seniors plus one superintendent’s unit. All apartments are available to extremely low-income senior households, with each resident required to pay only 30 percent of their monthly income towards rent. The remaining rental cost will be subsidized by federal Housing and Urban Development funds.
The Hebrew Home at Riverdale will provide on-site social services to all residents and referrals to off-site medical and social services. The project also includes 3,500 square feet of community space for residents and 3,000 square feet of outdoor recreational space. The property is equipped with EnergyStar appliances, rooftop solar panels and high-efficiency boilers and hot water heating systems in order to meet Enterprise Green Communities criteria.
The building at the base houses medical facilities as well as retail space and below-grade parking. Located between the Cross Bronx Expressway and the meandering Boston Road, the site is nearby the 174 Street and West Farms Square—East Tremont Avenue stations of the subway’s IRT White Plains Road Line.
City targets affordability
The development, which advances New York City’s goal of creating 300,000 affordable homes by 2026, was financed under HPD’s Senior Affordable Rental Apartments program and HDC’s Extremely Low and Low-Income Affordability program. HDC provided $37.8 million in tax-exempt bonds and $9.2 million in corporate reserves, while HPD chipped in $12.4 million in federal HOME funds.
The financing team also included New York City Council Member Rafael Salamanca, who provided $728,000 in Resolution A funds. Raymond James, as the tax credit syndicator, contributed a $34.8 million investment in federal tax credit equity, while TD Bank through its Commercial Real Estate Group provided a $38 million credit enhancement for the tax-exempt bonds.
The project benefits from new zoning rules passed by the City Council in March 2016 that make it easier to build affordable senior housing and care facilities and require developments to include housing components when building in newly rezoned areas.
Elsewhere in the Bronx, a $117.7 million affordable housing community developed by West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing opened in May.
