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Real Estate
Development: Housing
Rental Rehabilitation
Mosholu
Preservation Corporation began as a “buyer of last resort” of the community’s
most deteriorated housing. It has acquired and rehabilitated five rental
apartment buildings containing approximately 160 dwelling units in the blocks
immediately surrounding Montefiore’s Moses Division. Using a combination of
public and private financing offered by the Community Preservation Corporation
and by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, MPC
demonstrated there was value in local residential real estate. Through this
example and a technical assistance program, MPC encouraged area building owners
to reinvest in their properties.
MPC
continues to own these properties, providing moderate-income housing for the
community.
Negotiating mortgages and
defraying costs cover only part of the job. When tenants are still in place in
the unit to be renovated, housing rehabilitation becomes almost an art in
itself, one that requires careful planning and great sensitivity to the
occupants’ needs. MPC meets regularly with tenants to keep them informed and set
up work schedules that will minimize the disruption of their daily routines.
Home Ownership
As the rental market stabilized,
MPC's
housing program moved to encourage greater levels of home ownership in the
community. The first project was the rehabilitation and cooperative conversion
of a 60 year old building containing 104 apartments (The
Lenru, pictured above, located at 3400 Wayne Avenue).
MPC purchased the building, rehabilitated it and in 1991 sold it
to a new coop
corporation.
MPC's second home ownership project was the construction of nine units
of
housing offered as condominiums, an effort undertaken with the New York
Housing Partnership.
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condos before |
condos after |
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