(Credit: Gordon Woodworth, 2023)
This small apartment building at 38-40 Lawrence St. in Glens Falls will become affordable rentals now that the local Habitat for Humanity organization has purchased it. This is a new business model for the group.
Habitat for Humanity of Northern Saratoga, Warren & Washington Counties is expanding its reach.
Habitat, using the corporate banking skill set of Executive Director Adam Feldman and known best for building and selling affordable, single-family homes, is now developing affordable rental housing in Glens Falls, and affordable condos in Queensbury and Saratoga.
“Everyone says we have an affordable housing crisis, and I’m trying to solve it,” Feldman told FoothillsBusinessDaily.com. “I’m taking my corporate banking experience and applying the things I have learned. My team is so amazing at Habitat that it frees me up to think about these things.”
“Four years ago, I realized building single-family homes was not enough,” he said. The federal low-income tax credits help larger projects of 60 or more units, but he said there’s little funding for smaller projects.
“So we’re kind of piecemealing it together with grants, loans and foundations,” he said, adding that more developers may look at this segment of the market more favorably in the current economic climate.
[Read our earlier coverage here.]
The local non-profit just purchased two multi-family apartment buildings on Lawrence Street in Glens Falls for $490,000, partnering with the City of Glens Falls and The Wait House to develop and maintain “fair market value” apartments that will rent for $900 to $1,100 a month.
The first remodeled unit will be available Feb. 1.
Feldman said Wait House Executive Director Jason Mclaughlin told him that he’ll be able to fill all 10 apartments within 30 days.
The city supplied $200,000 from its federal allocation of American Rescue Plan (ARPA) money. Habitat borrowed another $100,000 from the non-profit Community Loan Fund, a nonprofit community development financial institution in the Capital Region.
The Charles R. Wood Foundation kicked in $50,000, and the Glens Falls Foundation another $30,000, Feldman said.
Peerless Builders of Saratoga Springs will complete the renovations, and Peerless Property Management will manage the apartments as well, Feldman said.
On Dec. 28, 2022, Glens Falls Area Habitat for Humanity, Inc., bought land near Fairfield Drive and Bay Road in Queensbury from developers Dan and Pam Valente for $600,000, a 50% discount. The property already has an approved site plan and utilities such as sewer and water. Valentes are financing the purchase. Additionally, Warren County allocated $250,000 from ARPA funding to the project.
“I’m now negotiating with several non-profit banks for the rest of the funding" for construction, Feldman said.
The plan there is to build 27 affordable condos that would sell for less than $200,000.
“There are no affordable condos being built anywhere,” Feldman said. “This is an innovative new project. And we have a new funding stream from the state Housing and Community Renewal, which now has funding of up to $200,000 per unit of affordable housing. We advocated for that, and we’re the first recipient in the state.”
Groundbreaking is set for the spring of 2024.
In Saratoga, Habitat is partnering with Putnam Resources LLC on a proposed condo project that would sell half of the 30 or 40 condos at below market value. The Times Union first reported this partnership earlier in the week.
“It was my idea,” Feldman said, “and they have asked me to help with financing and grants.”
In exchange, a third of the units will be set aside for Habitat families and the developer is paying Habitat a development fee for Feldman’s work.
The Saratoga Springs City Council agreed at its meeting Tuesday Jan. 17 to work with the partners involved toward a Restore NY grant for the 53 Putnam St. development.
"This project will allow people to occupy their domicile at an affordable price," Gordon Boyd told the board during a public hearing on the matter. He is working with the partners. "This is an important grant application that the board can make."
[Read our earlier story here.]
Habitat still builds single-family homes.
A gut-and-rehab in Corinth will be sold soon, Feldman said. A new home on Orville Street in Glens Falls will be finished this spring, as will a new home in Saratoga.
“We’re just trying to solve this issue,” he said.