Projects of Note

Edson Awards recognize innovation

By Bendix Anderson

Washington, D.C. – A pair of historic hospitals rehabilitated into affordable housing developments for seniors were among the four winning projects at the 10th Annual Charles L. Edson Tax Credit Excellence Awards, held here May 19.

The winners were: Markham Plaza in San Jose, Calif., in the Metropolitan/Urban Housing category; Historic Park Street Senior Homes in Reedsburg, Wis., in the Rural Housing category; Foley Senior Residences in Boston in the Seniors Housing category; and the Lennox Chase Apartments in Raleigh, N.C., in the Special Needs Housing category.

The developers of each project took home checks of $5,000 apiece from the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition, the private, nonprofit organization that organized the awards.

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), among other Congressmen, announced the winners and promised to defend and promote the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) program in Congress.

Before the awards luncheon, Martha Putnam of San Jose-based Core Development, Inc., presented her Markham Plaza project at an affordable housing symposium. The symposium was attended by housing professionals and about a dozen Congressional staffers, who received a quick education in the tax credit program.

Metropolitan/Urban Housing: Markham Plaza

The average apartment at Markham Plaza measures only 275 square feet, but each tiny unit manages to squeeze in a bathroom with a tub; a kitchen with a full-sized refrigerator, oven and microwave; and a living space with a full-sized bed that folds away into the wall.

Markham Plaza is a 305-unit single-room occupancy (SRO) development in San Jose, Calif. Its SRO units may sound incredibly small, but they reflect the reality of the San Jose housing market, where a patch of floor in an overcrowded home can rent for $500 a month.

The small units also made it possible for Markham Plaza to rent all of its apartments to tenants earning less than 30% of the area median income (AMI) – without needing Sec. 8 voucher subsidy.

Markham Plaza provides 20 units of supportive housing managed by the nonprofit Emergency Housing Consortium. Residents will receive services such as 50-cent dinners, counseling and job training, group therapy, computer classes, and free bus service to a free health care clinic.

The neighborhood around Markham Plaza is decidedly transitional. The site is in the center of the San Jose Monterey Corridor Redevelopment area and was formerly home to a derelict transmission shop and a go-kart track. Next to the site is a large community of overcrowded mobile homes.

To get the land, the project’s developer offered $100,000 more than the seller was asking. “I put together a legally binding contract in a few hours,” Putnam said. “I ended up getting the land for only $10,000 per unit, which for California is great.”

The neighborhood is also close to downtown San Jose and is set on a major intersection. There are thousands of jobs within walking or bicycling distance.

Markham Plaza targets very low income families without using Sec. 8 vouchers. Martha Putnam of San Jose-based Core Development, Inc., stands in front of her project. (Photo by Greg Pio.)

Rural Housing: Historic Park Street Senior Homes

The Edson Awards also recognized a historic community hospital in Reedsburg, Wis., that recently became the Historic Park Street Senior Homes, an affordable project for 24 elderly households. The apartments are targeted to tenants at a range of income levels.

“We became legends in the neighborhood for developing this,” said Nick Ladopoulos, principal with Progressive Designs, based in Waunakee, Wis. Progressive Designs partnered with Heartland Properties to redevelop the hospital.

Reedsburg is a small town with a population of only 7,800 and a strong demand for seniors housing. In fact, some of the new project’s elderly tenants had been born on the site when the building was still a hospital.

The Historic Park Street Senior Homes was expensive to construct. With total development costs of $3.2 million, the developers spent well over $100,000 per unit, which is high for the area.

The expense of the project reflects the difficulty of historic restoration. Contractors needed to demolish interior masonry walls, but there was no easy way to get heavy equipment into the old three-story building. “There were lots of people with little jackhammers,” Ladopoulos said.

At one point, the city of Reedsburg had been ready to demolish the old building, which cost $17,000 a year to heat before the renovation. The developers saved the old hospital by paying the whopping utility bill, even though they hadn’t yet purchased the building.

"We became legends in the neighborhood for developing this," said Nick Ladopoulos, principal with Progressive Designs, about his Historic Park Street Senior Homes project.

Seniors Housing: Foley Senior Residences

Another former hospital building has become the Foley Senior Residences. The project used to be the Foley Administrative Building in Boston, one of many buildings on the huge, 51-acre campus of the Boston Specialty and Rehabilitation Hospital. The hospital is still active, and doctors from the hospital will provide services to the 98 elderly households at the Residences. These services will range from occasional visits for more independent seniors to the full battery of regular checkups and meals provided by a fully licensed assisted-living program.

Trinity Financial, the project’s developer, doesn’t own the land under the project. Instead, the project’s limited partnership has taken out a 99-year land lease.

Special Needs Housing: Lennox Chase Apartments

The Lennox Chase Apartments, a 37-unit project in Raleigh, N.C., also won an Edson Award in the special-needs housing category. Lennox Chase is the first supportive-housing project in Raleigh. For more information, see the article on page 56.

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