Affordable Yonkers Development Lands $35M Financing from TD Bank
By Matt Grossman February 11, 2020 10:54 am
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TD Bank is funding construction of an affordable-housing building in Yonkers, N.Y. with a $35.3 million financing package, Commercial Observer can first report.
The investment will finance Yonkers-based Westhab in its construction of a 63-unit building called Dayspring Commons, at 227 Elm Street in the New York City suburb, about 10 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. The project is intended to create housing for homeless people and people with low incomes, according to TD Bank.
TD Bank’s investment consists of a $19.5 million letter of credit and $15.8 million in tax-credit equity to fund construction of the building, which broke ground late last year. The planned six-story building will be next door to a church that will serve as a community center, which will offer residents access to childcare, a fitness room and a library.
The project’s total cost is approximately $41 million. Additional funding includes a $1.3 million investment from Westhab and $4 million from grants and public sources that will be used to renovate the church building. The community center building represents an in-kind contribution from Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church, which holds services there now.
TD Bank’s letter of credit serves as a backstop to bonds issued for the project by the New York State Housing Finance Agency.
“Dayspring Commons will bring affordable housing and supportive services to formerly homeless families and individuals in Westchester County,” Phyllis Reich, a TD executive who works on community lending, said in a statement. “The resources provided will help integrate these residents into the community successfully.”
Richard Nightingale, Westhab’s president and CEO, said that the project will spur more affordable apartments in the surrounding area.
“The Dayspring campus will become both a central community anchor as well as a catalyst for additional investment in this neighborhood,” Nightingale said in a statement.
The building will include provisions to serve residents with special needs, and residents will benefit from a state rental-assistance program, as per TD Bank.
A working-class city of approximately 200,000, Yonkers has bus and rail connections to New York City, but its residents’ median income trails the typical earnings of neighbors to the south, in the Bronx’s Riverdale section, and in the next town to the north, Hastings-on-Hudson. Some New Yorkers make the trek north to the city to visit Yonkers Raceway & Empire City Casino, one of the Big Apple’s nearest casinos, or to shop at Stew Leonard’s, a quirky independent supermarket.
