Community Development Corporation of Long Island and Rochester-based developer Conifer Realty are teaming up on a 50-unit apartment community on North Road in Greenport aimed at providing workforce rental housing.
The development proposal calls for the construction of seven two-story multifamily buildings on a 17.2-acre wooded site east of San Simeon by the Sound, consisting of 14 one-bedroom, 22 two-bedroom, and 14 three-bedroom apartments. The community will also feature a clubhouse with a great room, fitness center, laundry room and playground. It will be staffed by a community manager and a maintenance supervisor, according to a project description provided to town officials.
To be built with the assistance of state funding for housing targeting low income populations — as determined by a percentage of the area median household income — both rents and tenant household incomes will be subject to maximum caps.
Twenty-five units will be reserved for households earning up to 50 percent of the Suffolk County area median income, adjusted for family size and 25 units will be reserved for households earning up to 60 percent of the area median income.
The Suffolk area median household income for a family of four is $110,800. To qualify for a one-bedroom apartment at the 50-percent limit, a single person can earn no more than $38,800 per year; at the 60-percent limit, the single tenant can earn up to $46,560. A family of four earning 50 percent of the area median income can earn up to $55,400; at 60 percent of the area median income, the maximum is bumped to $66,480.
Rents will range from $909 to $1,117 per month for a one-bedroom apartment (606 to 707 square feet.) The 850- to 884-square-foot, two-bedroom apartments will rent for $1,094 to $1,344 per month. Three-bedroom apartments, ranging in size from 1,101 to 1,211 square feet, will rent for $1,264 to $1,552 per month. Rents are set based on income category (50 percent or 60 percent of the area median household income.)
A site plan application will be filed with the town next month, said Community Development Corporation president and CEO Gwen O’Shea said in an interview. Multifamily dwellings are an as-of-right use in a hamlet density district, so no special exception or special permit is required for approval. The buildable portion of the 17.2-acre site is seven acres, she said. The rest is wetlands, wetlands buffer and construction buffer. The development will be connected to the Greenport sewer district, O’Shea said.
The developers hope to gain final site plan approval by next November and begin construction in March 2019. The target completion date is May 2020.
“It’s clear that the town is committed to their residents and businesses and to the overall vibrancy of the community,” O’Shea said. “There is no place for next generation to live and no place for workers to live,” she said. “The support we’ve heard has been overwhelming.”
The developers will be at the community center in Peconic for informal information sessions this evening until 7 p.m. and tomorrow morning from 9 to 11 a.m.
Conifer Realty, which specializes in workforce housing apartments, is currently building a five-story, 45-unit apartment building on West Main Street in Riverhead, another workforce housing joint venture with CDCLI. Conifer has built and manages five other apartment communities in Suffolk, all in partnership with Community Development Corporation of Long Island.
Conifer currently owns and manages over 15,000 multi-family units in 229 apartment communities in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, according to the company’s website.
