|
HDC Press Releases
|
|
June
25, 2009
|
|
HDC and the West Harlem Group Assistance Celebrate the ReOpening of the Mannie L. Wilson Towers Senior Residence
$10 million moderate renovation created 223 jobs
|
NEW YORK, NY, June 25,
2009 – Today the New
York City Housing
Development Corporation
(HDC) and West Harlem
Group Assistance, Inc.
(WHGA), a 39-year-old
Community Development
Corporation celebrated
the completed renovation
and reopening of the
Mannie L. Wilson Towers
Senior Residence,
located at 565 Manhattan
in Avenue. The complex
is named for the
Reverend Mannie L.
Wilson, the pastor of
the Convent Avenue
Baptist Church in Harlem
and a former president
of the Council of
Churches of the City of
New York, who died in
1982 at the age of 76.
The Mannie Wilson Towers
was formerly known as
Sydenham Hospital, which
was built in 1925. The
hospital was the first
medical facility in the
City to voluntarily to
hire black physicians ,
beginning in 1943. After
being closed by the City
in 1980, building was
reclaimed for senior
citizen’s housing
through the HUD 202
Program for use as
restricted income senior
citizen housing with the
assistance of
Congressman Charles B.
Rangel, who secured the
waiver to transform the
disused medical center
into affordable housing.
HDC provided
approximately $9.95
million for the
renovation. HDC
President Marc Jahr
said: “Over the years,
Mannie Wilson Towers has
proved to be as
significant a community
fixture as Sydenham
Hospital was before it.
The City made a major
commitment investing the
adaptive reuse that
first created this
housing. I am proud that
HDC has contributed to
this lasting legacy.”
The complex is located
on the West side of
Manhattan Avenue between
West 123rd Street and
West 124th Streets in
Central Harlem. The
$9.95 million moderate
renovation of Mannie
Wilson Towers has
preserved 102 units of
badly needed affordable
housing, including 46
studio apartments, 55
one-bedroom units at 60%
of the Area Median
Income (AMI) and one
additional one bedroom
apartments reserved for
a superintendent. The
completed project now
also contains commercial
space leased to Columbia
University Health Care,
Inc. and leases exterior
space for a Sprint
wireless antenna. The
preservation of
affordable housing in
neighborhoods across New
York City is part of the
City's Five Borough
Economic Opportunity
Plan to create jobs for
New Yorkers today,
implement a vision for
long-term economic
growth and build
affordable, attractive
neighborhoods. HDC
estimates that the
renovation of Mannie
Wilson Towers was
responsible for creating
223 jobs over a period
of two years.
Donald C. Notice,
Executive Director
stated: “West Harlem
Group Assistance (WHGA)
continues to advance
its’ affordable Housing
and Preservation
agendas. WGA, being one
of the oldest Community
Development
Corporations, has a
preservation agenda that
will allow us to
preserve availability
for another 30 years in
545 units by the year
2012. For nearly 40
years WHGA has worked to
stem the deterioration
of Harlem’s housing
stock and so helped
families who were
committed to living in
Harlem grow with
neighborhood”.
About West Harlem Group
Assistance, Inc.
West Harlem Group
Assistance, Inc. (WHGA)
a community based
development corporation
was established nearly
40 years ago to
revitalize the
under-invested West and
Central Harlem
Communities- riddled and
dilapidated and/or
abandoned buildings.
Ironically, as Harlem
over the past several
years has seen an influx
of new businesses and
investments, WHGA’s
primary function has
been to quell the impact
of such rapid
gentrification on the
community’s existing
residents. WHGA’s core
efforts include
affordable housing
development and
preservation as well as
asset building
initiatives including
Homeownership and small
business
development.These
endeavors are reinforced
by our supportive social
services programs,
including homeless
shelters, senior citizen
residences, a
multi-service facility,
early childhood
intervention, financial
literacy programs, an
education/technology
initiative, financial
literacy and small
business development.For
more information visit
our website at
www.WHGAINC.ORG.
About HDC
The New York City
Housing Development
Corporation (HDC)
provides a variety of
financing programs for
the creation and
preservation of
multi-family housing
that meets the wide
range of affordable
housing needs of the
City's economically
diverse population. It
is the nation’s number
one issuer of affordable
housing bonds. In 2008,
HDC issued more than
$1.3 billion worth of
bonds in the calendar
year, including
approximately $500
million in tax-exempt
housing revenue bonds,
enabling HDC to finance
the construction and/or
preservation of 7,371
apartments. HDC, along
with HPD, is
implementing Mayor
Bloomberg’s New Housing
Marketplace Plan to
build and preserve
165,000 units of
affordable housing for
500,000 New Yorkers. The
New Housing Marketplace
Plan is the largest
municipal affordable
housing effort in the
nation’s history. For
more information visit
www.nychdc.com.
About New York City’s
Five Borough Economic
Opportunity Plan
The City's Five Borough
Economic Opportunity
Plan is a comprehensive
strategy to bring New
York City through the
current economic
downturn as fast as
possible. It focuses on
three major areas:
creating jobs for New
Yorkers today,
implementing a long-term
vision for growing the
city's economy, and
building affordable,
attractive neighborhoods
in every borough. Taken
together, the
initiatives that the
City has launched to
achieve these goals will
generate thousands of
jobs and put New York
City on a path to
economic recovery and
growth. To learn more
about the plan, visit
www.nyc.gov
<http://www.nyc.gov/>.
Contacts:
Christina Sanchez (HDC), (212)-227-2644, csanchez@nychdc.com
|
|
