Affordable Housing Deal Has No Subsidy

The city plans to sell two vacant Hill lots to a developer who has committed to building five units of market-rate and five units of affordable housing, all with no public subsidy required.

The Livable City Initiative’s Property Acquisition and Disposition (PAD) Committee members voted unanimously to recommend approval of that deal Wednesday afternoon during a regular meeting held in the fifth-floor City Plan department library at City Hall.

LCI Acquisition and Disposition Coordinator Evan Trachten explained that the city would like to sell the vacant parcels at 232 and 238 Columbus Ave. to the local developer Concrete Creations LLC.

Concrete Creations, which is based out of 281 Chapel St. and is owned by Ralph Mauro, Vincent Mauro (no relation to the city’s Democratic Party town chair, who is also named Vincent Mauro), and Philip Mauro, has agreed to purchase the two adjacent lots for a combined sum of $100,000, Trachten said. The firm will then build 10 new two-bedroom apartments.

Five of those units will be rented at market rates, he said.

The remaining five, per the terms of the proposed deal, will be restricted for 20 years for tenants earning 50 percent or less of the area median income (AMI). That means that a family of four earning $50,450 per year won’t have to pay more than 30 percent of their annual income on rent.

“We think it’s a great reuse of this land,” Trachten said.

Not only would the development improve an unused, 14,000 square-foot combined lot in the heart of a residential neighborhood with 10 new units of housing, he said. But half of those apartments will be restricted as affordable with no commitment of public finances required.

Much of the city’s existing stock of existing deed-restricted affordable housing comes with some kind of local or state or federal subsidy. This project would provide dedicated affordable housing just per the terms of the sale with the city.

The city had previously sold the lot to Sacred Heart Church back in 2002. But the church never did anything with the property, Trachten said..

In 2017, when the church was negotiating selling its Columbus Avenue campus to St. Martin de Porres Academy, Trachten put in a call with the church, which then gave the deed back to the city.

“This is a real success story,” he said.

City Deputy Director of Zoning Jenna Montesano confirmed that, if the city goes through with selling this property to Concrete Creations, the developer will need to get some kind of zoning relief in order to make this project a reality. Fortunately, she said, that likely won’t be density relief regarding how many units the developer can fit on that parcel of land. Rather, based on her understanding of the design so far, that relief will just be in regards to walk-up staircases infringing on frontyard setbacks.

“They’re moving quickly,” Montesano said about the developments. ​“And they’re very excited.”

The proposed land disposition agreement (LDA) between LCI and Concrete Creations now advances for the LCI Board of Directors for a vote this coming Tuesday. If approved by the Board of Directors, the proposed land deal would then go to a Board of Alders committee or directly to the full Board of Alders for a final review and vote.

Wednesday’s vote was just a recommendation of the concept of an LDA, Trachten cautioned. The sale is still a few regulatory steps away from being final.

On Wednesday night, the deal cleared one more of those regulatory hurdles when the members of the City Plan Commission voted unanimously in support.

“This seems like a great thing,” commission Chair Ed Mattison said. ​“This is relatively affordable housing, and it’s paid with entirely by private funding.”