(To read more on the multifamily market, click here.)
PHILADELPHIA-Philadelphia Housing Authority and two private partners plan a combined investment of $238 million to construct an aggregate of 735 housing units and two office buildings on six area sites. PHA is constructing a total of 332 affordable residences, plus new PHA office space at an aggregate cost of $117 million.
In addition, it has sold land adjacent to two of its planned projects to the Blue Bell-based DePaul Group and Fort Washington-based Westrum Development Co. for construction of an aggregate of 403 market-rate residential units. Carl Greene, PHA executive director, says the combined DePaul/Westrum investment is $121 million.
As GlobeSt.com reported in October, Westrum has already begun construction of the 128-unit Hilltop at Falls Ridge complex in the East Falls neighborhood. PHA is adding 28 for-sale affordable units at that location alongside the 135 rental units it already operates.
DePaul is building 275 townhouse and duplex for-sale, market-rate homes at the site of the former Passyunk Homes in South Philadelphia, which were demolished in 2002. PHA is building an 80,000-sf office facility there that Greene says will house the authority's security and maintenance staff along with some auxiliary offices and meeting space. It will also construct a 30,000-sf office and training building on the Greater Grays Ferry Estates in South Philadelphia.
The largest of the PHA housing projects calls for 160 units in the Ludlow section of North Philadelphia. Greene tells GlobeSt.com 75 units will be rental and 85 will be for sale, and they will be dispersed throughout the community, not concentrated in a single site. These and the other PHA units are available to people who earn 80% or less of the area's median annual income, which is about $66,000 for a family of four.
Another 80-unit one- and two-bedroom rental project is planned at Marshall Shepherd Village in West Philadelphia. Greene says 55 units are new construction and 25 are rehabs, and all range from about 601 sf to 855 sf.
In March PHA will break ground for a 60-unit senior rental complex next to the authority's Johnson Homes site in North Philadelphia. Called Nellie Reynolds Gardens, it will include a 12,000-sf Living Independently for Elders center, which Greene says will provide health care services administrated by the state.
"Combining affordable and market-rate housing provides a vibrancy that makes a city work," Greene says. "In the past 10 years, PHA has invested approximately $1.2 billion in development, and it has proven to raise property values in City neighborhoods."
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