Yonkers, N.Y.–The Yonkers Industrial Development Agency (IDA) has closed on financial incentive deals for 10 residential and commercial projects in that city last year, including a number of affordable housing projects. All together, the residential projects are expected to create 282 new units of housing.
The Yonkers IDA offers property tax agreements, mortgage tax exemption, and sales- and use-tax exemptions for construction materials that can significantly lower the cost of a project. These incentives in turn free up business capital that make projects affordable. All together, Yonkers IDA incentivized four multifamily projects in 2010, three of which were new projects. Of these projects, 190 units of the 282 new units are designated for seniors.
The projects include Warburton Riverview, also known as 49 North Broadway, which is a joint venture of L+M Development Partners and the Greyston Foundation at an estimated cost of $31.5 million. According to Yonkers IDA, the first phase of the project will play a significant role in the city’s downtown renaissance, adding 92 housing units, including one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments.
The project also will share 98 garage spaces in the planned 300-space Larkin Garage, another IDA-assisted project and key piece of downtown’s transformation. Site work began this year on 49 North Broadway, which will be completed in less than two years.
Another Yonkers IDA-assisted multifamily development is Westchester Center for Independent & Assisted Living, at an estimated cost of $24 million. In March 2010, Westchester ALP Property LLC purchased 78 Stratton Street South to convert the two vacant buildings into a new affordable assisted living facility for seniors. When completed this year, Westchester Center will offer low-income seniors 141 affordable housing units with on-site amenities such as a beauty parlor/barber shop, rehabilitation centers, a 24-hour country kitchen, security and medical services.
A third project, 110 Ashburton Avenue, is part of the larger HOPE VI Revitalization Plan, a federally funded program that seeks to replace severely distressed public housing projects with new, redesigned mixed-income housing. The $19.1 million 110 Ashburton Avenue, by Ashburton Avenue I L.P., will entail the construction of a four-story elevator building with 49 one-bedroom units for low-income seniors. Construction began in 2010 and is expected to be completed this year.
Finally, Riverview II, which is owned and managed by a subsidiary of the Related Cos., is a 343-unit facility originally built in the 1970s. The property had an upgrade in 2008 that was partially funded with bonds issued through the Yonkers IDA that same year. Last year the Yonkers Economic Development Corp. (EDC), a subsidiary of the IDA, facilitated a refunding of the bonds.
