Camba Housing to Construct $68M Affordable Housing Project In Brooklyn

A two-building, 209-unit affordable and supportive housing development complex will be constructed on a site owned by Kings County Hospital Center in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, with 146 units for special needs tenants and 63 units for low-income families.

   

The 195,000 square foot complex will rise on the site where two vacant buildings now stand. The two buildings, which have been vacant since January 2009, will be demolished in September with construction of the two new six-story structures to commence in early 2012.  

    

Developer CAMBA Housing Ventures, along with partner Enterprise Community Investment, which provides capital for affordable housing developments, recently closed on the $67 million deal to construct the project, dubbed CAMBA Gardens. The complex, located at 690 and 738 Albany Ave., will be LEED Gold and comply with Enterprise Green Communities Criteria, a set of energy-efficiency standards that New York City recently adopted for all affordable-housing properties across the city.

  

The deal, which took three years to close, was made possible with $24.5 million in low-income housing tax credits, more than $34 million in tax exempt bonds, as well as a $5 million construction loan.

      

Financing for the CAMBA Gardens project was provided by a large flock of private, public and government entities including: Corporation for Supportive Housing, Deutsche Bank, TD Bank, New York State Homes and Community Renewal, NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development, New York State Homeless Housing Assistance Corporation, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, and the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York Affordable Housing Program.

    

CAMBA Gardens will also provide on-site services such as case management. Referrals to medical care, mental health care, job training and other services will also be provided by CAMBA, a 30-plus-year-old nonprofit that provides a range of social services. The development is expected to be completed by September 2013.

  

CAMBA Housing Ventures was created four years ago to focus on building and operating permanent affordable housing with a goal to create 1,000 units by 2015, and is presently constructing a new green affordable housing development in the Spring Creek section of Brooklyn.

  
By Peter Coyne / TheElectricWeb.com
July 28, 2011