SPECIAL FOCUS
READERS’ CHOICE AWARDS
BEST HOMEOWNERSHIP PROJECT: The Village PeopleDeveloper makes it easier for those
with lower incomes to buy a home
BY DANA ENFINGER
AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE • NOVEMBER 2007
WILMINGTON, DEL.—Keith Campbell is amazed at
the transformation of this
Eastlake neighborhood
where he recently bought
his new home.
“I’m not surprised that the
developer won an award,” said
Campbell. “They are beautiful
homes. I can’t believe how this
has improved the neighborhood,
and I remember how it
used to look. Plus, I was
impressed with the way I was
treated throughout the [homebuying]
process.”
The neighborhood where
Campbell now lives was formerly
known as “the Bucket.” It
was understood that if people
had lived in this part of
Eastlake, they had hit the bottom
of the bucket. Developer
Leon N. Weiner & Associates,
Inc., transformed a former public housing
development in this crime-ridden neighborhood
into an affordable project consisting
of 70 rental and 90 homeownership
units. The for-sale portion won the the
AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE Readers’
Choice Award for the top affordable homeownership
project in the country.
“It’s gratifying to see something that,
in 1997, was just a vision,” said Glenn
Brooks, senior vice president for Leon N.
Weiner & Associates, Inc. “We were able to
deliver nice, affordable homes, and the
project is doing what we thought it was
going to do 10 years later.”
Brooks and his team envisioned the
project revitalizing the area, and that is
exactly what happened. Seventy-two
affordable townhomes were recently built
in the neighborhood.
Campbell, who had always been a
renter, was in the market to buy a home
but was concerned about accessibility features.
He uses a wheelchair as a result of a
sporting accident when he was 16. A coworker
of Campbell’s at the local electric
company suggested he check out The
Village of Eastlake. Campbell decided to
drive by the project one January day.
“The townhome I looked at had lower
countertops and a motorized chair lift,”
said Campbell. “A chair lift? That’s
unheard of.”
Campbell couldn’t pass it up. He
ended up buying the last available unit at
the development. He plans to build an elevator
in his new home to make mobility
even easier.
All 90 units at Eastlake consist of
three bedrooms. Sixty-two are townhomes
(1,360 square feet each). The remaining
are duplexes (1,650 square feet each). The
homes are reserved for households with
widely varying incomes—as low
as 26 percent of the area median
income (AMI) up to a high
of 115 percent. A majority of
them (59 homes) are reserved
for households earning
between 26 percent and 80 percent
of the AMI. Homes in the
project are priced approximately
$20,000 lower than comparable
homes in the neighborhood.
The Department of Housing
and Urban Development awarded
the homeownership phase
$5.27 million in HOPE VI
funds. PNC Bank provided a
$3.58 million construction loan.
The Federal Home Loan Bank
of Pittsburgh awarded $490,000. The state
of Delaware provided $250,000 for street
improvements, as the developer razed the
old project and new streets had to be built.
The developer closed the funding gap by
creating a Program Income Fund, which
had three sources: reinvested lot transfer
fees, settlement proceeds, and $1.1 million
that became available when the rental portion
of the development went to permanent
endorsement.
The Wilmington Housing Authority
owned the site, so it agreed to reinvest
the acquisition cost of the land back into
the development at the time of each
move-in.
The Village
of Eastlake
Developers: Leon N. Weiner & Associates, Inc.
Architect: Torti Gallas and Partners-CHK, Inc.
Major Funders:
Department of Housing and Urban
Development
PNC Bank
Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh
State of Delaware
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