Nehemiah digs in

The performance hall at the Green Street Arts Center was packed with dignitaries for Monday's groundbreaking ceremony for the North End Home Ownership project. After remarks by no less than 15 politicians and stakeholders in the project, the crowd moved outside for a golden shovel ceremony. The developers, Nehemiah Housing and Broad Park Development Corp, note that actual construction is slated to begin in late summer, with the first of the 15 units available by October 2010.

Readers of the Eye have been treated to many, many articles about the long process of finding funding and getting approval from the Redevelopment Agency and Common Council for the home-ownership condos. Compromises between the developers and the preservation community led to the decision to rehabilitate three of the Ferry houses that were originally to be demolished. The January 2008 move of the former Methodist Church on Liberty Street to a new site on Rapallo Avenue added further complexity to the project, resulting in a plan to create 4 units in the renovated building. The difficulties of the current economy and real estate market required the developers to trim the original 7 sites to 6 -- the Habitat for Humanity duplex on Ferry Street will have to wait.

Although there are a number of funding sources (including some $700,000+ from the City), the project ultimately received its green light with the recent agreement by the state's Department of Economic and Community Development to provide $3 million in grants to fill the gap in the approx. $7 million budget. In exchange, the developers are required to sell the homes at below-market prices to households within targeted income categories -- most are for families with up to 80% of median income, and two units are reserved for families with up to 50% of median income.

In this architectural rendering you can see:
1 Top right corner: two new duplexes will replace two houses on the south side of Green Street which are currently vacant and condemned. These units are priced at $124,000 to $148,000.
2. Top left corner: the planned facade of the former Methodist Church. This elevation will face Rapallo Avenue, and the building will house four units which are priced at $93,970 to $124,000.
3. Bottom row: Three existing houses on the south side of Ferry will have condos priced from $138,000 to $168,000.

Many of the speakers at the groundbreaking praised the partnerships that brought this project to fruition, as well as the investments of Wesleyan University, the City and private developers in the North End. In her remarks, Jackie Clegg Dodd (wife of Senator Chris Dodd) noted the progress that Middletown has made in recent years. We now know, she said, that the North End was lucky to escape the wholesale redevelopment that other towns experienced, and the resulting construction of buildings in the "Early Ugly" style. Instead, the North End still has "good bones", and a strong base of dedicated people who care enough to work at creating a stable community.

As the final speaker, Izzi Greenberg, the executive director of NEAT and a contributor to this blog, noted that this is a very exciting step for residents of the North End -- the culmination of a neighborhood redevelopment effort that began in the late 1990's. Ever practical, she also noted that NEAT and Liberty Bank have been cooperatively offering financial literacy workshops to educate families that might be eligible to purchase the homes.

North End Home Ownership Groundbreaking This Morning

North End Homeownership, a partnership between Nehemiah Housing Corporation and the Broad Park Development Corporation will break ground on fifteen units of affordable homes this Monday, June 22^nd, at 11:00 am.

In the fall of 2006, Nehemiah Housing Corp and Broad-Park Development Corporation of Hartford agreed to implement the home-ownership component of the North End Redevelopment plan. The development will provide 17 scattered-site units for home owners. All the properties will target households whose income is below 80% Area Median Income (AMI), or approximately $60,000 for a family of four. Nehemiah has secured funding for 15 of the 17 units. The remaining two units will be developed by Middlesex Habitat for Humanity to serve households below 50% area median income.

This project is a critical piece of the North End’s continued revitalization. It is the culmination of many years of work for residents, non-profits and community stakeholder groups to improve the living conditions, safety and long-term success of Middletown’s North End. Homeownership is a critical component to stabilizing the neighborhood and has been the focus of neighborhood advocates for many years. This project is long in the making and promises to be an exciting next step.

The groundbreaking event will include:

• Jackie Clegg Dodd, representing Senator Chris Dodd
• Department of Economic and Community Development’s Commissioner: Joan McDonald
• Middletown Mayor: Sebastian Giuliano
• Middlesex Chamber of Commerce: Larry McHugh, President
• Liberty Bank: Chandler Howard, President & CEO
• Connecticut Housing Finance Authority: Diane L. Smith
• Local Initiatives Support Corporation: Lesley Higgins-Biddle
• Department of Housing and Urban Development: Julie Fagan
• State Senator: Paul Doyle
• State Representative Joseph Serra
• Nehemiah Housing Corporation: Michael Taylor
• Broad-Park Development Corporation: Raquel Rivera
• North End Action Team: Izzi Greenberg
  

The event will take place on Monday, June 22^nd at 11:00 am in the parking lot of 47 Rapallo Ave, Middletown with a rain location of the Green Street Arts Center, 51 Green Street, Middletown.

Positive funding news for North End Housing

Supporters of the long-awaited North End Home Ownership project heard some good news at Tuesday's Redevelopment Agency meeting.

The project, which has been in the planning phase for several years, will construct 17 home-ownership units on Ferry, Green and Rapallo in the North End, in a combination of new and rehab construction. The units will be targeted to first-time home buyers, and should be eligible for a number of subsidies to make the purchase affordable. The construction of the units, however, will cost considerably more than the purchase prices, and a complex network of grants, loans and city funds are filling the gap.

(If you'd like to know more about the history and financing of this project, click on the label "Nehemiah Housing" below this post, and you'll see a listing of the Eye coverage over the past year.)

Michael Taylor of Nehemiah Housing and David Berto of Broad Park Development Corp. reported that a critical grant of HOME funds from the state's Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) has entered the final phase of review and should close within the next two or three months. Once the DECD funds are secured, they expect to finalize a construction loan from Liberty Bank. That's a big step for these developers, who struggled to assemble the financing for this deal even before the economy began to crash. One of the recent compromises in the plan was to segregate one of the properties, 25 Ferry Street, which is slated for development as a duplex by Habitat for Humanity, so that the construction on the other properties could proceed more quickly. As the project moves forward, other funding will be sought to complete that property.

If all goes as planned, there will be a ground-breaking ceremony in late June, followed by the start of construction in August.

In other business, the Redevelopment Agency considered the possibility of adding the fledgling streetcar project to their agenda. After a debate on how this project fits in with Redevelopment's responsibilities, it was agreed that the Agency should take a closer look because the streetcar might improve the connection between the North End and the rest of Main Street.

True Confessions: In case any readers of the Eye don't know, I'll confess that I am a longtime member of the Redevelopment Agency. I'm writing about meetings in which I participate and therefore can't claim a shred of journalistic detachment.

Nehemiah and Broad Park Still Short On Development Funds

The current economic climate, particularly the downward spiral of the real estate market have not been kind to plans for creating 17 units of affordable owner-occupied housing in Middletown's North End, East of Main Street.

Tuesday evening David Berto of the Broad Park Development Corporation, and Michael Taylor of Nehemiah made another presentation to the Redevelopment Commission indicating, once again, that they have not been able to obtain the necessary financial backing to proceed with construction and renovation of the housing units.

The funding plan is complex, mixing federal dollars with state, local and private money, but each loan or grant is contingent on the next. So when federal dollars are pulled back, as they were recently, or when local banks lower the percentage of finished market cost they are willing to finance, it puts the entire plan in jeopardy.

Progressing on the current path, the partnership would have to wait until a new federal application is available in June, with funding not secured until September. In another scenario, Berto explained that federal stimulus dollars might be available, and a relatively small grant of approximately $600,000 would allow construction to begin. Both Taylor and Berto explained that the project truly was "shovel ready" and encourage all commission members to make contact with state and federal legislators to promote the plan.

Taylor said that in a worse-case scenario, the partners would stagger construction and development of housing units, but that the approach would sacrifice cost savings for bundling the construction.

Berto and Taylor promised to create a list of the kinds of officials who would be the most influential in deciding where stimulus dollars would be assigned, so that Redevelopment Commission members could direct their comments effectively.

Report on Redevelopment

The Redevelopment Agency met last night -- that's the citizen committee, appointed by the mayor, which is in charge of the official redevelopment projects of the City.

There are two primary projects we are working on.

There's nothing new to report about the Miller & Bridge neighborhood, which I wrote about here and here. Relief for this neighborhood will have to wait until the City can convince the State (through our legislators) to supply the approx. $3 million to implement either Plan A or Plan B. And now you'll just have to click on my old posts to see what those options are.


The other issue is the North End home-ownership initiative. The developers are Nehemiah Housing of Middletown and Broad Park Development Corp of Hartford -- I'll call this partnership "N-BP". The plan is for N-BP to create 17 home-ownership condos on Ferry, Green & Rapallo by doing rehab on a few historic houses, and demolishing two others and building new construction. The condos would be sold to people who fit certain income categories, and not on the open market (2 of the units would be developed by Habitat for Humanity). The City appointed N-BP as the developer on this project, which is intended to compliment the 96 subsidized rental apartments which have already been constructed on Ferry Street by the Richman Group.

It's been a long time in coming, but it seems that N-BP is getting closer to completing their financing for the project. I'll bore you with the details.

There are 5 sources of income for the $7 million project (this project costs more than $400,000 per unit.)
-There's a proposed grant from the state's Department of Economic Development, for about $3 million in HOME funds. It is in the final stages of approval and is supposed to be implemented within 90 days or so.
-There are proposed Housing Tax Credits from the State for about $500,000. The N-BP application for these credits was denied last August. They will have another opportunity to apply next August.
-The City has already committed $720,000 to the project. Most of that was done through the purchase of 2 properties, which the City gave to N-BP, along with the relocation of those tenants and various other items. The last 10% of the City's committment will be transfered to N-BP through Community Development Block Funding at the November Common Council meeting. I should note that CDBG funds come from the Federal government through HUD, and they are awarded to Middletown and other cities based on the number of low-income residents.
-The Federal Home Loan Bank in Boston is listed as a source for about $400,000,and a decision on this funding is expected in November.

-The developer is anticipating that these condos, when complete, will sell for about 2.5 million. Since those funds won't be realized until the end of the project, N-BP has applied to Liberty Bank for a construction loan, which is awaiting an "after-rehab" appraisal of the likely selling prices of the future condos, which is expected within the next 3 months.

Of these five sources, the City's portion is the only fully committed source, but the others are moving closer to reality and the next 3 months are critical to the future of this project. For cash-flow purposes, N-BP has also taken out some loans so that they could get to this point with the project, and those loans will be paid back through some of the above sources. N-BP has noted that if one of their funding sources ultimately denies them, they will look for other sources. (Note: all this data comes from the reports by Michael Taylor of Nehemiah during the Redevelopment meeting, and if I've got it wrong, I hope someone will correct me!)

One unusual event at the meeting last night was the appearance of four of the landlords in this neighborhood (in spite of all the publicly-financed properties, there are still some independent homes and small rental properties on these streets.) These landlords, with Connie Piacenta as their spokesperson, were making the rounds of various city committees concerning planning, health, safety and anywhere they could find an ear. They wanted to express their concerns about how long it is taking for the N-BP project to move forward, and about the condition of these buildings in the meantime. They also had a long list of issues about parking, garbage and the condition of the small City playground which has been vandalized. And they voiced concerns about the maintenance of the new Wharfside Commons (the Richman Group apartments).

Although the Redevelopment Agency is not in charge of some of the issues that they raised, I was very glad that they came and expressed their opinions so that we can monitor the situation more closely. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and their approach of appearing before multiple committees is already working - they noted that some clean-up had already begun. As a volunteer on the Redevelopment Agency, it is always helpful to hear from citizens -- not just from the professional developers, City officials and other "regulars".

If you are still reading, then you must have an unusual tolerance for City business! Consider offering your services to the Mayor the next time an opening occurs on Redevelopment, or just come down, on the 3rd Tuesday of every month (time TBA) to watch the proceedings.