June 16, 2009

Yonkers officials break ground on new affordable housing

Ernie Garcia
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YONKERS - Officials gathered at 330 Riverdale Ave. yesterday to break ground on a $54.5 million affordable-housing complex.

The 153-unit building is expected to be finished in the spring of 2011 and most of the apartments will be reserved for people who make far less than the county's median income of $73,700 for a single-person household.

Twenty-seven of the apartments will be rented to people who make less than 50 percent of the median income for the area, while 109 apartments will be reserved for people making less than 60 percent of the median.

Mayor Phil Amicone said that the building was important for the city's future redevelopment because it will help keep 137 low- and moderate-income people in Yonkers as the west side redevelops. Much of the housing created in the downtown area in recent years has been for people with higher incomes.

L&M Development Partners of Larchmont is behind 11-story complex, which will offer studios, as well as one- and two-bedroom apartments.

The project received about $8 million in financing from Westchester County, and County Executive Andrew Spano attended yesterday's ceremony to praise the development.

"It's important to have a continuum of all income levels in your community in order to make a community whole," Spano said of Yonkers officials' support for L&M Development's project. "It's a shame we don't have the same eagerness throughout the entire county."