Syracuse, NY -- An $8.1 million apartment building for homeless veterans is planned to replace the vacant former Jewish Community Center on East Genesee Street in Syracuse.

Housing Visions, a non-profit that builds homes for low-income residents, is teaming up with the Veterans Administration on the project, which will be called VanKeuren Square. It will be at the T-intersection with Fellows Avenue on the city's East Side.

The plans are to demolish the 132,293 square foot brick building and replace it with a two-story structure with 50 apartments, said Ben Lockwood, the non-profit's director of development. The building will have 44 one-bedroom and six two-bedroom apartments and total 45,000 square feet.

Housing Visions is funding the project with a mixture of low-income tax credits, state homeless housing assistance and a city loan, Lockwood said. The majority of tenants will be referred by the VA, which will provide 25 housing vouchers lasting 15 years.

Housing Visions is paying more than $100,000 in back taxes and will pay about $25,000 a year in taxes, more than the current tax levy on the property. The taxes will go up slightly each year as rents increase, Lockwood said.

The project is part of the VA's goal to eliminate homelessness among veterans, Lockwood said. The VA will provide services to the veterans to get back on their feet.

Housing Visions has previously built veterans housing on East Fayette Street and at the former Cherry Hill public housing site.

"Absolutely, there's a pretty acute need in the community," Lockwood said.

Housing Visions hopes to close on the property in July from its last owner, an arm of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. It will take about 30 days to clean up asbestos and lead before demolition.

The new project has final planning and zoning approval from the city. Lockwood says he sees no obstacles in getting final approval for the demolition and construction.

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New 50-unit apartment building for homeless veterans planned for East Genesee Street in Syracuse

BY MATTHEW BRUCE Correspondent May 18, 2012 8:26PM

A rendering of the proposed Boulevard at Central Station apartment building in Tinley Park. | Supplied photo

storyidforme: 30720624 tmspicid: 10272743 fileheaderid: 4733890

Developers of a nearly $35 million mixed-used project proposed for downtown Tinley Park introduced their vision to the villages plan commission Thursday.

The development team laid out construction plans for The Boulevard at Central Station, a five-story building that would include 167 apartment units and 24,500 square feet of commercial space.

The project, to be located along South Street between 67th Court and 174th Street, would include one-, two- and three-bedroom units that eventually can be converted to condominiums if market conditions dictate. The majority of the apartments would be two-bedroom units.

The estimated cost of $34.8 million makes it essential to get the project rolling while interest rates are favorable, officials said.

We need to start this year. We want to start this year, project attorney David Sosin told the plan commission. Of course, one of the key issues for a developer are interest rates, which are wonderful right now. Next year, we dont know.

Bob Hansen, the main developer, said in April he first approached village officials in 2002 with the idea to build on the vacant strip. Fluctuations in the real estate market changed the plans over the years, with developers submitting six major plans to village officials, Sosin said.

This plan has been in the works for quite some time, as you know, he said. Weve weathered the worst downturn in residential housing in memory. ... We think were there today, and really ready to go with the plan.

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Plan for downtown Tinley apartment project ‘really ready to go’

An unknown buyer has paid over $90 million for an unfinished penthouse apartment, setting a new mark for the priciest home in New York City. The developer of a new high-rise building under construction on157 West 57th Street would not reveal the exact price for the 11,000-square foot, two-story penthouse, but did tell The New York Times that it was below the elusive $100 million mark that real estate watchers expect to be broken any day now. It breaks the previous New York City record of $88 million paid by a Russian billionaire to buy a Central Park West apartment for his daughter last year. On a per-square foot basis, however, this is a much better deal. The latest sale went for about $8,000 a square foot, while the Central Park West pad went for more than $13,000.

The new building, called One57, will eventually rise to 90 floors over Midtown Manhattan, making it one of the tallest residential buildings in the world. With more than half apartments still be to sold, it's possible that the $100 million mark could be surpassed on one of the lower floors before construction is even finished. Two other New York apartments have gone for more than $50 million in just the last week suggesting there is plenty of one-percenters looking to pay top dollar for a new pad.The buyer of the One57 penthouse was not revealed, but the developer said that the family was not from anywhere in the former Soviet Union and it is someone that people would recognize.

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at dashiell at dashiellbennett dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.

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$90 Million Apartment Sets a New Real Estate Record

A new apartment building near the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology is on schedule to go from foundation to finished in just five months.

Using pre-cast concrete panels, contractor J. Scull Construction Services expects to have the six-story building finished by Aug. 15, in time for 130 students to move into the two-, three- and four-bedroom apartments and start the school year.

Passers-by will see the progress advance by a floor a week for the next five weeks, and the roof will go up during the sixth week, leaving time for interior finish work.

The time frame is very aggressive for a six-story structure, Scull project manager Brandon Moore said. Getting turned loose in April and then finishing in August is a quick turnaround.

He said the precast panels are trucked to the site from a manufacturer in Sioux Falls.

In addition to being quick to install, the panels are energy-efficient, with insulation within the panel, along with more insulation installed on the interior wall.

You really get an efficient building type that will reduce heating and cooling costs, Moore said.

Project developer Hani Shafai, owner of Dream Design International, said his management group, Technology Housing LLC, has started leasing units in the building, which is called Rocker Square. Rents range from $370 to $475 a month for a 12-month lease, with the option of furnished or unfurnished space. The price includes utilities, a washer/dryer unit in each apartment, plus cable and Internet.

When this apartment building is finished, Shafai said, he will start construction on a similar apartment building next door that will have apartments ranging from studios to two-bedroom units. Together, the buildings will house 336 people. The ground floor of the first building will include a management office, a common area and a small coffee shop run by the universitys food-services provider.

The apartments are being built on the former site of a group of dilapidated houses and apartments that were razed this spring. The construction is the first step in the School of Mines 30-year, $500 million plan to redevelop the neighborhood between the university campus and East Boulevard. Plans call for student housing, a new sports arena and event center, parking structures and an expanded student center.

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Apartments rise quickly along St. Joe

A proposal to build a five-story, 20-unit student apartment building at 2124 Grand Ave. won approval from the St. Paul Planning Commission on Friday, May 18, with conditions.

The building, which will replace a duplex and a single-family home at Grand Avenue and Finn Street, will have one level of underground parking with 37 stalls. Three more stalls will be along an alley.

The building, which will be constructed in the permit parking district by the University of St. Thomas, will be limited to up to 20 on-street parking permits for residents and up to five additional permits for management.

The developer, Cullen LLC, is required to provide up to 24 bicycle stalls and a space for a car-sharing service such as HourCar, as long as a car-sharing company is willing to locate there. Other conditions governed stormwater management and the placement of windows on the site.

Neighboring residents had objected to an increase in student housing, but city staff found that the project does not defy an ongoing moratorium against converting owner-occuped homes into student rentals since the development will be new construction.

The planning commission approved the project by a 15-1 vote.

SALVATION ARMY

Meanwhile, the Salvation Army won one and lost one before the commission Friday.

The Salvation Army recently received the go-ahead to open a co-ed youth shelter at the Booth Brown House on Como Avenue.

The 16-bed emergency shelter would house young people

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St. Paul Planning Commission: Student apartment building on Grand Avenue gets the nod

Enlarge Damian Dovarganes/AP

The increase in housing starts, along with rising builder confidence and stronger job growth, is a hopeful sign that the home market may be starting to recover.

The increase in housing starts, along with rising builder confidence and stronger job growth, is a hopeful sign that the home market may be starting to recover.

U.S. builders began work on more homes last month, evidence that the battered housing market is slowly healing.

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that builders broke ground at a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 717,000 homes in April from March. That's 2.6 percent more than March's total, which was revised higher. Construction rose for both single-family homes and apartments.

Building permits, a gauge of future construction, fell last month from a 3 year high to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 715,000. But that was because of a 23 percent drop in the volatile apartment category. Permits for single-family homes rose almost 2 percent.

Even with the gains, the rate of construction and the level of permits requested remain roughly half the pace considered healthy. But the increase, along with rising builder confidence and stronger job growth, is a hopeful sign that the home market may finally be starting to recover nearly five years after the housing bubble burst.

Builders have grown more confident since last fall, in part because more people have expressed interest in buying a home. In May, builder optimism rose to the highest level in five years, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index.

Seasonally adjusted annual rate, in thousands

Homebuilders reported improving sales and higher traffic from prospective buyers, the survey showed. A gauge measuring confidence in sales over the next six months also rose to 34 from 31.

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Housing Construction Up 2.6 Percent In April

After years of planning and organization, developers are poised to move forward with construction of Camellia Park Apartment Homes on the land known as Camellia Commons on the south side of Boll Weevil Circle.

Developer Bill Ware attended the May 15 Enterprise City Council meeting to update councilmembers on the project that is more than five years in the making.

Camellia Commons originally broke ground in 2008, however the downward economy slowed building projects on the site that at the time was expecting a full retail center within seven years.

In a 2009 interview, Enterprise Mayor Boswell said Enterprise is "poised to take advantage of the upswing when it curves."

The presentation regarding the impending construction of Camellia Park is a promising sign that the economy is indeed on the upswing.

Boswell said this project will add to the quality of life for residents in Enterprise and would hopefully help accelerate the development of other retailers on the Camellia Commons property.

Camellia Park is a large gated apartment complex planned between Bellwood Road and Highway 167 South. It is the first of six phases planned for the Camellia Commons area.

The area, Ware said, is the "growth corridor" for continued growth in Enterprise.

"We're happy and excited about being a part of that growth," he said.

The $13 million project will sit on 16.88 acres of land and include 11 residential buildings with one, two and three bedroom apartments, for a total of 144 apartments.

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Construction of Camellia Park planned by end of year

Todd Maisel/New York Daily News

A construction worker plunged 40 several stories from a scaffolding on a building under construction at 450 Broome St. in Manhattan Thursday afternoon.

A Brooklyn construction worker packing up to head home from his first day on the job was killed Thursday in a two-story fall from scaffolding on a Manhattan building family and coworkers said.

Adrian Zamora, 32, was alone on the scaffolding - not wearing a harness - on the Mercer St. side of 450 Broome St. in SoHo when he plummeted 40 feet onto a sidewalk shed around 5 p.m., colleague Emerson Bicalho said.

The workers were restoring the facade of the 11-story luxury loft apartment building.

We were cleaning up to go home, Bicalho, 35, of Newark said. He fell on his head. ... He was bleeding from the nose and mouth.

The paramedics were pumping his chest. He wasnt responding, the shaken-up coworker said.

Hes a nice guy. Hes a real joker. He was a working guy just trying to make some money to keep his family good.

An EMT source at the scene said the man suffered massive head trauma and went into cardiac arrest.

Zamora, an immigrant from Mexico who lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children, died at Bellevue Hospital, his family and police said.

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Construction worker dies in Manhattan fall

Since the housing meltdown, more South Floridians are renting a place to live because the financial reality is that they cant buy.

A lot of other people simply prefer to rent.

The two groups are spawning a fundamental shift in housing and a fledgling boom in the construction of new apartments for the first time in years. It is a national trend that is crystallizing in South Florida with rental apartment projects in the works in cities ranging from Plantation and Davie to Doral and Coral Gables.

Rentals will be in demand for a while. The pendulum has swung, said Mahesh Pattabhiraman, chief lending officer for Miami-based Apollo Bank, which this month made a land-acquisition loan to Miamis Adler Group, a major commercial developer that plans to build two 20-story rental apartment towers near the west end of 79th Street Causeway in a joint venture with ECI Group of Atlanta.

A lot of people with bad credit wont qualify to buy a home. And because of the crisis, some people are not convinced its the right time to buy, added Pattabhiraman.

Like Adler, other major South Florida developers with specialties in areas such as luxury condominiums and industrial parks are refocusing on rental apartments to capitalize on the strong demand and the availability of financing.

Everybody is jumping on the bandwagon, said Armando Codina, a prominent Miami developer of industrial parks and commercial projects who has turned his attention in a big way to rental apartments, with projects in various stages from Doral to Davie. The fundamentals are right. This is not a trendy thing, said Codina.

On Wednesday, Codina announced his Coral Gables-based CC Residential has formed a partnership with AREA Property Partners, a New York real estate investment giant, to develop rental apartment projects in South Florida. The alliance includes two projects in which Codina has already broken ground: a 352-unit project renamed The Signature at Doral, at Doral Boulevard (NW 41st Street) and the Homestead Extension of Floridas Turnpike, and a 350-apartment project on Davie Road between SW 29th Street and SW 31st Street, renamed The Signature at Davie.

AREAs CEO for North America, Richard Mack, said his firms recent success in acquiring a troubled condo project and turning it into an apartment complex on the Miami River called Terrazas River Park Village reinforced his view that the time is right for multifamily rental development. It led us to conclude that rents are going to continue to rise and demand is going to continue to rise in a way to sustain new development, Mack said.

Fueling the demand is the dearth of professionally managed apartment buildings in the wake of the condo-conversion mania of the last decade. Many multifamily rental apartments in the region were snapped up by developers, converted into condos and sold for quick profits.

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Rental, sweet rental: Shift toward apartment living spurs new construction

Posted:Today Updated: 10:28 AM A 94-unit apartment building, a 26-unit condominium complex and a multi-use building beside the Hampton Inn are proposed.

By Tom Bell tbell@mainetoday.com Staff Writer

The India Street neighborhood is poised for a building boom that was supposed to happen years ago but was stalled by the recession, although some of the projects are not at the same level of opulence that was once envisioned for the area.

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The 94-unit apartment building proposed for the Portland site formerly occupied by the Village Cafe is creating controversy because of its height: 74 feet in an area zoned for 45-foot height limits.

click image to enlarge

This is the Middle Street view of the mixed-use building proposed for the former Jordan's Meats site.

Three significant development projects are in the works, each with varying levels of support from the neighborhood. The projects are:

a 94-unit apartment building on the former site of the Village Cafe;

a 26-unit condominium project on Franklin Street; and

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Developers try again in India Street neighborhood