Melissa Nann Burke

The News Journal

Alder Creek will include fitness room, community building and after-school program

The community will feaure 56-garden style apartments

Project is expected to cost $13 million and be completed next year.

NEWARK – Construction is beginning to redevelop the long-vacant Cleveland Heights housing project into a site with 56 affordable rental units, a community center and a green.

“This project has been a long time coming. It has been many years since the last resident moved out of the former buildings behind us,” Jane C. W. Vincent, regional administrator for the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, said at a ground-breaking cermony Thursday.

“There is no doubt that there is need for the units that we’re going to have here – family units, one- to four-bedroom units. Just take a look at Newark Housing Authority’s waiting list to know that not everyone has fully participated in our economic recovery.”

To finance the project, the Newark Housing Authority partnered with a private developer, Ingerman of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, which is leasing the property off East Cleveland Avenue and overseeing its operation for a renewable term of 30 years.

Plans for the community, Alder Creek, include 56 garden-style apartments –each with a private entrance, front porch, rear balcony and parking. Central to the development is a 3,500-square-foot community building for hosting community activities and an after-school program, said David Holden, a senior official with Ingerman.

“I’ve seen the work that [Ingerman] has done elsewhere. It’s high quality. Just because it’s affordable doesn’t mean it can’t be attractive,” Gov. Jack Markell said, noting he recently hosted a cabinet meeting at an Ingerman property in Smyrna.

Built in 1967, Cleveland Heights fell into disrepair a decade ago. The buildings were to be demolished and the property auctioned off, but a buyer never committed. In recent years, the NHA pursued the public-private partnership as a solution.

Redevelopment costs are estimated at $13 million, including brownfield cleanup, demolition of 21 buildings and construction. Through a federal tax program, Ingerman takes out a loan to fund construction and receives tax credits worth an estimated $11 million over 10 years. Ingerman also collects an 8 percent fee from tenants’ rent for managing the property.

The Delaware State Housing Authority is contributing to the financing package with a $736,000 long-term loan via the state housing development fund, said director Anas Ben Addi.

A $600,000 state brownfield grant is covering costs to clean up contaminants thought to have leached into the site from the former landfill that was next door – now the site of the McKees Solar Park.

Demolition began in July, and construction is expected to last at least until June. Tenants could begin moving in next fall.

“We don’t have too many affordable, rental family apartments in the City of Newark, so this is a great expansion of resources,” U.S. Sen. Chris Coons said.

Rental costs are relatively high in Newark due to high demand from thousands of off-campus university students.

The Newark Housing Authority owns and operates 98 public-housing units and maintains a waiting list that’s more than 1,000 families long. Due to federal budget cuts, the NHA has 209 housing vouchers that it cannot distribute because it lacks sufficient funding to cover the subsidies, said executive director Marene Jordan.

“That goes to show you the need is much broader here,” Jordan said. “When this is done, we’ll have 56 units for 56 families at a price they can afford. That’s major for a college town.”

Forty-two of the 56 units would be assigned to low-income residents earning up to 60 percent of the county’s median income. Another 14 units would be rented at market rate but reserved for tenants with Section 8 housing-subsidy vouchers.

Contact Melissa Nann Burke at (302) 324-2329, mburke@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @nannburke.