Below-Market Senior Housing Units Coming To Harlem

HARLEM, NY — Developers and city partners have closed on construction financing for a nine-story development that will bring 136 units of below-market housing for seniors to Harlem, the development team announced this week.

The development, which will be called "Victory Plaza," will be located on West 118th Street near Fifth Avenue and is a product or a partnership between Camber Property Group, Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement and the city Department Housing Preservation and Development and Housing Development Corporation. Units in the building will be offered to individuals and families earning up to 50 percent of the Area Median Income.

An Area Median Income of 50 percent is defined by the city as $36,550 for an individual and $56,340 for a family of three. Forty-one of the units at Victory Plaza will be reserved for formerly homeless tenants, developers said.

The development will feature indoor and outdoor common spaces for tenants, an outdoor garden and on-site social services, developers said.

"Victory Plaza will provide state-of-the-art senior housing serving some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers" Rick Gropper, Principal at Camber Property Group, said in a statement. "With on-site social services and curated indoor and outdoor amenity space, our residents will live in comfort without concern about rent burden."

Developing Victory Plaza is expected to cost $65 million and is being funded by both private and public sources. The city Housing Development Corporation is contributing $46 million in tax exempt bonds and subsidy, HPD is contributing $7 million in subsidy and Wells Fargo is contributing $26 million in equity generated from the sale of Low Income Housing Tax Credits.

The firm Aufgang Architects is designing the new facility, which will be located next to an existing senior facility called Victory One. Construction on the development is underway and is expected to be finished by 2020.

"Through Housing New York, we are looking to build the next generation of senior housing. Victory Plaza will create 136 homes for seniors, including 41 homes for homeless seniors, on land that was part of an existing HUD 202, delivering on a key strategy laid out in Housing New York 2.0," HPD Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer said in a statement.

Rendering by Aufgang Architects