The Challenge

The City of Yonkers recognizes the importance of affordable and workforce housing in the community, but new construction or renovated housing is increasingly expensive to build, while still maintaining both quality and safety. The Yonkers IDA regularly evaluates proposed affordable and mixed-income projects that request financial assistance in the form of real property, construction material sale, and mortgage recording tax abatement. Camoin 310 regularly provides analyses to support the IDA’s decision process, and asked for additional advisory services for Conifer Realty’s  Point & Ravine project.

The Solution

Camoin 310 completed our impact analysis, then began testing alternative real property tax abatement schedules to estimate the amount of financial assistance needed for the project to be viable. Point & Ravine has a more complex capital structure than many projects, and uses the sale of Low Income Housing Tax Credits as well as support from NYS Housing Finance Authority and other public sources to fund construction. We  created a tax abatement schedule based on Shelter Rent and established alternate, cashflow-based rate of return benchmarks that matched the requirements of the different investor types. Our report described the sources and outcomes so that the Yonkers IDA could make an informed decision.

The Impact

The Yonkers IDA approved the financial assistance  package. Point & Ravine will create 146 new affordable housing units in the Ravine Avenue Urban Renewal Area. In addition to 34 jobs and $4.6 million of earnings during the construction period, the project is expected to generate 27 jobs and $1.2 million of earnings annually from operations and new household spending.

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