Senior Housing Builder Seeks Tax Break

A Branford-based developer plans to knock down four rented single-family houses and build 65 new apartments for low-income seniors and people with disabilities, according to a new 17-year local tax break application for a project slated to go up in the shadow of West Rock.

That project is detailed in a tax abatement proposal recently submitted to the Board of Alders by the Queach Corporation, a development firm run by Michael Giordano.

The proposal next advances to an aldermanic committee for a public hearing and review before returning to the full city legislature for further consideration and a potential final vote.

The proposal pertains to a planned new 65-unit apartment complex at 7 – 17 Stone St. in Beaver Hills. (Click here to read the tax break application in full.)

That site is right next door to 160 subsidized apartments for seniors and people with disabilities at the existing Park Ridge apartment buildings. 

The developer of this planned new housing complex, to be called West Ridge Apartments, is a company owned by the Giordano family, which also built and owns the adjacent Park Ridge buildings. 

The 7 – 17 Stone St. site where the developer plans to construct 65 new apartments — 80 percent of which would be reserved at below-market rents — is currently home to five single-family houses. 

All of those houses are owned by the developer. If this project moves forward, four of the houses would be demolished, while one, which local preservationists have deemed historic, would be relocated and renovated as a single rental unit as part of the larger West Ridge Apartments project. 

“There are five single family homes on the site currently, all of which are currently rented on month to month basis,” Queach Corporation Development Manager Meghan Carbone confirmed for the Independent in a recent email comment about this project. ​“Four homes are scheduled to be demolished and one will be relocated within the project site. All renters were notified of the temporary nature of occupancy prior to move in and informed at that time that the property being rented had been acquired for the project and would be demolished upon receipt of funding for construction. Any tenants who are deemed eligible for housing in the newly constructed West Ridge Apartments will be offered the opportunity to return upon its completion.”

She added that, if West Ridge is successful in its various housing subsidy applications, the developer should begin demolition of the existing single-family homes in July 2023 and then start construction soon thereafter.

“At this time the Park Ridge community is 100% affordable through project-based vouchers and serves a critical and growing need for affordable housing,” Carbone wrote. ​“We are excited to expand this community with the addition of 65 units from West Ridge, 80% of which will be affordable contingent upon availability of vouchers. 

Per the developer’s Nov. 21 application to the Board of Alders, the Queach Corporation is asking the city for a tax abatement that would fix the new 65 apartments’ local taxes at $350 per unit for 17 years. 

That local tax number would then increase each year by the same percentage as rents at those same subsidized apartments. 

This local tax break application comes roughly three years after the developer won approval from the Board of Alders to amend the site’s Planned Development District (PDD) to allow for the construction of a new apartment complex on Stone Street.

In a letter written to Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers, Carbone detailed her firm’s request for the local tax abatement for the planned new West Ridge Apartments at 7 – 17 Stone St.

“West Ridge will continue and expand the long-standing mission of the Park Ridge community to provide housing and services for very low income, low income and moderate income elderly and disabled individuals from diverse communities in New Haven,” she wrote.

She wrote that the West Ridge apartment complex will add ​“supportive services” for individuals with disabilities who have been referred by the state Department of Development Services. ​“Together with the service provider and the onsite full time resident service manager and property management team, people residing at West Ridge will have the opportunity to participate in community activities, cultural offerings, various onsite life skills training and educational events, and more as we work to build upon the valued place that Park Ridge has become in New Haven.”

Carbone added that West Ridge’s goal is to be a ​“Section 8 project-based community,” with 80 percent of the apartments to have subsidized rents. She wrote that her firm plans to apply for 38 vouchers from Elm City Communities / Housing Authority of New Haven through the Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) Project-Based Assistance Program. The developer also intends to apply for funding through the 9 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) program.

“However, even with these subsidies and other projected funding sources, this development, due to the dramatic increase in interest rates over the past number of months as well as known increases to construction costs, requires support from the City in the form of the tax abatement as outlined in the attached in order to proceed,” Carbone wrote. 

“Though we have not in the history of operating and owning at Park Ridge ever requested support in this form before, we ask that the Board of Alders consider this tax abatement for West Ridge that is in line with the tax abatements recently approved for other low and moderate income developments.”

In a narrative description of the proposed project included in the developer’s local tax abatement application, Carbone wrote that Park Ridge I was established in 1979 and consists of 71 apartments with Section 8 vouchers. Park Ridge II was developed soon thereafter, and includes 28 apartments, all with Section 8 vouchers.

Then, in 2005, 40 Austin St. was built as an addition to the existing 25 Hard St. complex, thereby adding still another 60 apartments fully subsidized by Section 8 vouchers.

“All units are designated as affordable for elderly or disabled occupancy,” Carbone wrote. ​“All units were initially constructed, managed, owned, and operated by the Giordano family. The acquisition of five parcels on Stone Street over the past six years have allowed for the expansion of PDD 32 and creation of new affordable housing with the approved expansion of the PDD to include these acquired Stone Street parcels as well as all zoning approvals.”

Carbone wrote that the 160 apartments currently at Park Ridge have a 100-person, three-year waiting list.

“Currently, there is a heavy influx of investment by private out of state developers and investors into multifamily and single-family market rate rental properties in this census tract,” the application’s narrative continues, ​“increasing the importance of maintaining access to affordable living opportunities for current and future community residents. The presence of Park Ridge in this community adds a much-needed increase in affordable living opportunity for the elderly and disabled to the community.”

Carbone wrote that the target population for this new apartment complex will be elderly residents aged 62 and up and people with disabilities over the age of 18.

The application states that there will be 65 new apartments in the new-construction building, and one new apartment in the relocated historic three-bedroom home.

Fourteen of the new apartments will be reserved for renters making no more than 25 percent of the area median income (AMI), 12 units will be reserved at 30 percent AMI, 26 units at 50 percent AMI, 13 units will be rented out at market rates, and 38 units will be subsidized by Section 8 vouchers, if the developer is successful in its application. The development will include 14 ​“supportive housing” units to be occupied by 16 people who will received supportive services directly from DDS.

Further down in the local tax abatement application, the developer states that it has agreed to work with the city on traffic calming measures at the intersection of Stone and Blake Streets.

The developer estimates that the project will create 65 to 80 temporary jobs over the course of a 24-month construction period. It will then create roughly 25 to 30 permanent jobs once the project is open and operating.