Schoolhouse Terrace is the critical first phase in the redevelopment of Cottage Place Gardens, a deteriorating public housing project built in 1945 in Yonkers, New York.
Located on the site of a long-vacant school building, the new development transforms an urban brownfield into a 50-unit building for low-income seniors and another 70-unit building for low-income families. There is also a superintendent’s unit.
Developed by The Community Builders (TCB) and the Municipal Housing Authority of Yonkers, Schoolhouse Terrace provides replacement housing for the adjacent Cottage Place Gardens complex, which was featured in Show Me a Hero, a recent HBO mini-series that illuminated Yonkers’ public housing battles of the 1980s.
After years of attempts at revitalization, public housing residents were understandably concerned about their rights to return to the site.
Schoolhouse Terrace was built with several green building features, including stormwater detention systems and green roofing. Officials expect the new project to receive LEED Gold certification.
To finance the $63 million project, the development team assembled multiple funding sources, including the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program and a state brownfield program to clean an oil plume that migrated to the site from another location.
Approximately $29 million in state and federal LIHTC equity from RBC Capital Markets—Tax Credit Equity Group and Bank of New York Mellon were vital to the deal.