Renderings of The Monarch (top) and West Ridge Apartments (bottom left): Both OK'd for local tax break deals.
Local legislators signed off on two decade-plus tax break deals for two different affordable housing plans that will see 129 new apartments built in Beaver Hills and West River.
Alders approved those tax breaks Tuesday night during the latest full Board of Alders meeting in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.
One tax break went to the West Ridge Apartments, a planned new 65-unit apartment complex for seniors and people with disabilities that the Branford-based Queach Corporation is set to build at 7 – 17 Stone St. in the shadow of West Rock.
The 17-year tax abatement freezes the Stone Street development’s taxes at $350 per unit per year for each of the 52 below-market-rent units. (The 13 market-rate units will not receive tax breaks.) Taxes for each below-market-rent unit will then increase during that period only if the landlord chooses to raise the rent; taxes will go up by the same percentage as rents.
According to the property owner’s local tax break application, 14 of the new apartments will be reserved for renters making no more than 25 percent of the area median income (AMI), 12 units will be reserved at 30 percent AMI, 26 units at 50 percent AMI, and 13 units will be rented out at market rates.
Laura Glesby file photo
Beaver Hills Alder Brian Wingate: affordable senior and disabled housing is "great for the neighborhood."
Beaver Hills Alder Brian Wingate, whose ward includes the proposed new West Ridge building, urged his colleagues to support the tax break on Tuesday night. “This is clearly in line with our legislative agenda,” he said. “This is great for the neighborhood.”
Queach plans to provide wraparound “supportive housing” services for disabled tenants of 14 of the apartments. Those tenants will be identified by the state Department of Social Services.
The developer also plans to knock down four single-family houses and relocate and renovate a fifth single-family house on Stone Street to make way for the new apartment complex. The developer already owns all of the properties in question.
SEBASTIAN MEDINA-TAYAC file photo
New England Linen workers inside the Monarch laundry plant in 2015.
The other tax break approved by the alders on Tuesday night was for a planned new 64-unit, entirely below-market-rent apartment building called The Monarch at a former laundry facility at 149 – 169 Derby Ave. in West River.
The 15-year tax abatement deal will let the Avon-based developer Honeycomb Real Estate Patners pay $450 per unit in taxes in its first year, with taxes increasing by 3 percent annually for each year of the agreement after that.
The planned new four-story complex will comprise a mix of one, two, and three-bedroom apartments. Three will be reserved for tenants making up to 80 percent AMI, or $72,080 for a two-person household; 48 for tenants making up to 60 percent AMI, or $54,060 for two people; and 13 for tenants making up to 50 percent AMI, or $45,050 for two people.
The income requirements will apply to tenants at the time they sign their leases. According to Honeycomb, tenants will be able to increase their income and earn up to 140 percent of the AMI while remaining in the building.
Fair Haven Alder and Tax Abatement Committee Chair Jose Crespo spoke up in support of the Monarch agreement.
“It’s gonna bring life to this side of the community,” he said.