Affordable housing plan for seniors on Freeport church campus gets $12.3 million state funding
A developer plans to build an 80-unit affordable building for seniors on the church parking lot of Refuge Apostolic Church of Christ in Freeport, seen here Thursday. Credit: Debbie Egan-Chin
The developer behind a plan to build 80 apartments for seniors on a Freeport church parking lot has secured more than $12 million in state funds, giving the project a needed financial boost to get off the ground.
The state awarded Levittown-based D&F Development Group LLC $12.3 million in tax credits and a low-interest loan to build the five-story building on the corner of Broadway and Rosedale Avenue, next to Refuge Apostolic Church of Christ, according to a news release from the governor’s office.
The building will have 75 one-bedroom apartments and four two-bedroom apartments, all reserved for seniors with incomes at or below 70% of the area median income, or below an estimated $98,000 per year, said Peter Florey, principal at D&F. One unit will be reserved for the superintendent.
The new development will have 10 units set aside for residents ages 62 and up in need of additional services, provided on-site by the nonprofit Family Service League, Florey said.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- The state awarded a Levittown developer $12.3 million in tax credits and a low-interest loan to build a senior housing development in Freeport.
- The 80 apartments will be reserved for seniors making no more than 70% of the area median income.
- The building will be named after the late Bishop Ronald H. Carter, a leader of Refuge Apostolic Church of Christ in Freeport who kicked off the project before his death.
D&F has not yet applied for construction permits for the work, but it received zoning approval in 2023, Florey said. The development is expected to create about 150 construction jobs, he added.
The Freeport senior housing development will be named after the late Bishop Ronald H. Carter, a leader of Refuge Apostolic Church of Christ. Credit: Tanya Carter
The building will be named after the late Bishop Ronald H. Carter, a leader of Refuge Apostolic Church of Christ who kicked off the project in 2020, before his death in 2022, Newsday reported.
The apartments will be “a place of refuge, safety, comfort, help and hope, with additional services for those that require it,” said Tanya Carter, the bishop's daughter and a trustee in Hempstead Village.
The new development is one of a handful of housing projects on Long Island being built with the help of religious institutions. It also will benefit from a $240 million pool of tax credits Gov. Kathy Hochul awarded to state developers on Tuesday, as she looks to create or preserve 100,000 affordable homes amid a housing shortage.
From church parking lot to affordable housing
Bishop Carter saw the development as a way to address the need for affordable housing in Freeport, Tanya Carter told Newsday.
“My father always felt that the church’s job was to be a beacon of light for the community, not just in its four walls,” she said.
Under D&F’s agreement with the church, the church will have the right to buy the building 15 years after its completion. The church will only have to pay off any debt on the property, Florey added.
A rendering of a housing development to be built on the parking lot of the Refuge Apostolic Church of Christ. Credit: D & F Development Group, LLC
D&F will spend $45.7 million on the development, including $2.4 million to buy the land from the church, Florey said. The developer is expected to purchase the lot in the fall, provided it secures tax relief from the Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency. The agency examined the plan in September 2023, according to an IDA resolution, but if the project changes substantially, the IDA would have to review it again, the agency said.
Hochul, faith-based groups look to build
The state funding includes a $9 million low-interest loan and roughly $3.3 million in tax credits through the federal and state Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, according to state records.
Roughly $12.2 million in state funding also will help finance the redevelopment of vacant land owned by the First Baptist Church of Riverhead into affordable housing, according to the governor’s office. And last year, a $120 million plan to transform a former Brentwood Catholic school into 176 apartments, including units for seniors and veterans, moved forward after the Town of Islip approved a zoning change, Newsday reported.
“Faith-based institutions deploying land for housing is both established and growing in the New York metro area,” Sam Chandan, the head of the Global Real Estate Finance Institute at New York University's Stern School of Business, said in an email.
Selling or leasing land to developers to build housing generates money for a religious institution, and can help them further their mission to serve a local community by providing housing amid a shortage, Chandan said.
Last year, the nonprofit Regional Plan Association found that Long Island will need to build more than 250,000 new homes over the next 20 years to meet growing demand, Newsday reported.
