NY1 News Clip: New York Living Real Estate Report
January 29, 2009
Affordable housing is in high demand, and one company is building hundreds of new apartments to help the city meet its pressing need. NY1's Tara Lynn Wagner filed the following report.
With new construction projects being stopped in their tracks, one company is managing to keep things moving.
The Arker Companies own and manage over 3,000 units of affordable housing across the city, from the Markham Gardens complex on Staten Island to the recently completed White Plains Courtyard in the Bronx.
Company partner Sol Arker says the group prides itself on building affordable housing that does not necessarily look like affordable housing.
"I defy most people who look at these building from the outside to be able to determine who the income or category of tenants are," says Arker.
The Arker Companies currently have 600 units in the works, including the future Hewitt House in Longwood. Funding for the $25 million project was made possible through tax credits, bank loans and money provided by the city through the mayor's New Housing Marketplace Plan.
The plan aims to create 165,000 units of affordable housing by 2014 - enough to house a half-million people.
"The need was always there. What's radically different is the willingness of the mayor to invest his own capital, city resources, directly into a project," says Arker.
Like many of the company's projects, the Hewitt House will include a mix of residences and retail space, which the partners say is their personal philosophy to not only build buildings, but build communities.
"You create retail space on the ground floor of a building and it provides jobs for a community," says company partner Daniel Moritz.
While Arker Companies have successfully leased space to Staples in one building and a grocery store in another, the troubled economy has left some storefronts lying empty.
"Sure, we have some concern," says Arker. "We tend to be a little bit more optimistic in that all of our developments that will attract the typical retailer that depends on a walk-in client base."
The apartments, which are reserved for families earning no more than $46,000 a year, will be filled through the Department of Housing Preservation and Development's lottery program.
"We would typically get over 4,000 or 5,000 for a 100-unit building, so you can see there's clearly a demand for affordable housing," says Moritz.
Judging from the number of applications, the Arker Companies and the city can't build the units fast enough.
.
See the full story.
January 29, 2009
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Affordable housing is in high demand, and one company is building hundreds of new apartments to help the city meet its pressing need. NY1's Tara Lynn Wagner filed the following report.
With new construction projects being stopped in their tracks, one company is managing to keep things moving.
The Arker Companies own and manage over 3,000 units of affordable housing across the city, from the Markham Gardens complex on Staten Island to the recently completed White Plains Courtyard in the Bronx.
Company partner Sol Arker says the group prides itself on building affordable housing that does not necessarily look like affordable housing.
"I defy most people who look at these building from the outside to be able to determine who the income or category of tenants are," says Arker.
The Arker Companies currently have 600 units in the works, including the future Hewitt House in Longwood. Funding for the $25 million project was made possible through tax credits, bank loans and money provided by the city through the mayor's New Housing Marketplace Plan.
The plan aims to create 165,000 units of affordable housing by 2014 - enough to house a half-million people.
"The need was always there. What's radically different is the willingness of the mayor to invest his own capital, city resources, directly into a project," says Arker.
Like many of the company's projects, the Hewitt House will include a mix of residences and retail space, which the partners say is their personal philosophy to not only build buildings, but build communities.
"You create retail space on the ground floor of a building and it provides jobs for a community," says company partner Daniel Moritz.
While Arker Companies have successfully leased space to Staples in one building and a grocery store in another, the troubled economy has left some storefronts lying empty.
"Sure, we have some concern," says Arker. "We tend to be a little bit more optimistic in that all of our developments that will attract the typical retailer that depends on a walk-in client base."
The apartments, which are reserved for families earning no more than $46,000 a year, will be filled through the Department of Housing Preservation and Development's lottery program.
"We would typically get over 4,000 or 5,000 for a 100-unit building, so you can see there's clearly a demand for affordable housing," says Moritz.
Judging from the number of applications, the Arker Companies and the city can't build the units fast enough.
.
See the full story.