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Tax credits OK’d for Westlake project
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
YOUNGSTOWN
The Ohio Housing Finance Agency has approved low-income housing tax credits for demolishing half the Westlake Terrace housing project and replacing it with 60 mansion-style and townhouse apartments.
The $1 million in tax credits will be sold to investors on the open market to leverage an additional $7 million, said Clifford Scott, executive director of the Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority, which operates Westlake.
The rest of the $10.5 million to $11 million required for the project will come from federal funds supplied by YMHA and the city, including the city’s Community Development Block Grant Program. The project developer is NRP Development of Cleveland.
“We’re just trying to do our part in making sure that we provide safe, decent, affordable housing for low- to moderate-income individuals and families,” Scott said.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development must approve the demolition, with the approval process normally taking nine to 12 months, and with all 60 new units likely ready for occupancy 18 months from the beginning of the demolition, Scott said.
The second and future phase of the project, for which the authority will apply in October, will entail replacement of the other half of Westlake with an additional 60 mansion-style and townhouse apartments.
A property-viability study by the EMG Group of Chicago recommended last year that the authority demolish the remnants of Westlake, which has small apartments and lacks off-street parking. About 75 of Westlake’s 220 remaining apartments are vacant, boarded up and in disrepair.
The 1940-vintage Westlake Terrace, which was dedicated by Eleanor Roosevelt, is one of the oldest public-housing projects in the nation.
The new development, known as The Village at Arlington Heights, will be similar to Arlington Hope VI neighborhood, which replaced much of Westlake Terrace in recent years.
The new development will feature a clubhouse, two parking spaces adjacent to each residential unit and a washer and dryer within each unit. Mansion-style dwellings are designed with two or three residential units in each building.