Interesting article about the new Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services apartment building located in downtown. Breckenridge is a mixed income development. Some pics are included in the article from the Ithaca Journal (
http://www.ithacajournal.com/article...nclick_check=1)
Ithaca's Breckenridge apartments a milestone for housing agency, downtown
Six-story apartment building is INHS's largest
8:39 AM, Feb 5, 2014
Written by
David Hill
For 18 years, Carol Rubenstein lived in an apartment on Giles Street. The landlord maintained it well, and it has room, but walking into town was getting dangerous because the route is steep and twisty, and the sidewalks are not so smooth, especially in winter. And with a respiratory condition, she wanted a new apartment less likely to have the dust common in older buildings.
So when she learned in August about rental opportunities at the Breckenridge Place building, then under construction on Seneca at Cayuga streets downtown, she entered the lottery for an interview. She got it. Now, she lives in a one-bedroom unit with a view.
“I thought I’ve got to do this now because I’m looking toward the next phase of my life, may it continue,” Rubenstein said last week during a break from moving in. “It has a nice view. You can even see mountains. And it’s a lot of lovely light.”
And the location can’t be beat: “It’s easier for me to get around, because I can walk to places or take the bus without being afraid of tripping or falling downhill all the way down to the bottom.”
Breckenridge Place opened for occupancy in January on the site of the former Women’s Community Building. At 50 units, it is the largest rental project undertaken by Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services, a not-for-profit development corporation that promotes affordable rental housing and home ownership.
It is also the first affordable-housing project in downtown Ithaca in four decades, since the McGraw House senior complex was built on Geneva Street, said INHS Executive Director Paul Mazzarella.
The opening is the culmination of the key downtown intersection’s transformation. The Women’s Community Building was owned by the city Federation of Women’s Organizations, founded in 1910, served as a home for many nonprofit organizations and provided community meeting space until the organization decided to sell it. INHS bought it in 2012.
It is named for Juanita Breckenridge Bates, an early leader of the women’s rights movement in Tompkins County and a founding member of the federation.
“We’ve always wanted to put our affordable housing in the most convenient location for people, which is downtown,” Mazzarella said. “It’s very close to transit, it’s very close to all the services that people want to use, restaurants, entertainment.”
Like most INHS rental properties, apartments are reserved for tenants who meet low- or moderate-income requirements. Monthly rents range from $616 to $872 for one-bedroom apartments, and $738 to $1,047 for two-bedroom units. While many of the tenants in the two dozen units rented so far are seniors, it’s not reserved for people of any particular age.
INHS developed the $14 million Breckenridge Place with Pathstone Corp., a Rochester-based, not-for-profit community development organization. Both organizations put up some of their own money, but the main source of funding is the federal low-income housing tax credit program, in which investors receive tax credits on any profit they make, Mazzarella said.
Other funding came from the New York State Housing Trust Fund Corp.; the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York; Tompkins Trust Co.; a local affordable-housing trust fund supported by Tompkins County, city government and Cornell University; and federal community development funds controlled by the City of Ithaca.
City officials for years have been pushing denser downtown development, particularly in housing, and Mazzarella said the business community has supported Breckenridge, including an endorsement for funding from the Downtown Ithaca Alliance, which runs the downtown business improvement district.
“I don’t think you find that in a lot of communities, where the people who own businesses downtown are embracing the idea of putting affordable housing in that downtown,” Mazzarella said. “We think it’s a showcase for how the downtown can develop.”
It’s also a departure in construction for INHS, which up to now has either rehabilitated older structures or built relatively small apartment buildings out of downtown.
Breckenridge is six stories tall, constructed of steel and concrete on pilings driven into the ground beneath. Early plans called for ground-floor retail space, but funders did not support them.
INHS is seeking highest-level platinum certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.
Features include triple-pane windows — many with screens to allow residents to open them — south-side sunshades for summer, and passive-solar heating for winter; and low-emissions paints and carpets. Breckenridge Place uses an air-to-air heat pump system for heating and cooling, of the kind being used in Europe, Asia and some new office buildings.
“It’s basically a refrigerant kind of air conditioning system that runs in reverse,” said Scott Reynolds, INHS director for real estate development. “There are units on the roof that suck heat out of the air on a 10-degree day like today and blow hot air into the units. Everybody controls their own air conditioning, their own heat.”