Three ambitious building projects in New Haven have won competitive state grants to support low and moderate-income housing.
The grants, totaling more than $10 million, come from the state Department of Housing’s (DOH) Competitive Housing Assistance for Multifamily Properties (CHAMP) program. CHAMP loans are designed to cover the financing gap for developers to afford to build lower-rent housing.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced the loans in a release issued Tuesday. Statewide, he announced $22 million in CHAMP loans. The three New Haven loans include:
• $3,835,002 to the Housing Authority of New Haven (HANH)‘s development subsidiary, the Glendower Group, for the next phase of the rebuilding of the Complex Formerly Known As Farnam Courts on Grand Avenue. It’s now officially called “Mill River Crossing.” (Click here to read about the rebuilding effort so far.) The CHAMP grant will support four new buildings “containing 45 residential units, with 36 affordable and nine market-rate units,” according to the release. “The affordable units will serve low-income households with incomes not exceeding 25 percent, 50 percent, and 60 percent of the area-median income and will provide two, three, and four bedroom units.”
• $2,751,000 to developer Randy Salvatore for part of his Hill-to-Downtown project. This loan will support converting the old Welch School into 30 apartments. (Read more on the project here.)
• $3,724,000 to HANH’s Glendower Group to rehab 201 apartments at three buildings at Ruoppolo Manor and Fair Haven Heights, all for senior and disable households at 30, 50, and 80 percent of area media income.
In the release, Malloy argued that these loans “will play an important role in attracting new talent to our workforce, incentivizing our young people to stay in Connecticut, and encouraging business growth.”
