Housing Project Evaluation and Decision Support in Yonkers, NY

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 Industrial Development Agency (IDA) 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 Associates regularly provides economic and fiscal impact analyses to support Yonkers IDA’s decision process, and they asked us to complete an analysis for Conifer Realty’s Point and Ravine affordable housing development project.

The Solution

Camoin Associates 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 and 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, cash flow-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. Our analysis indicated that the Point & Ravine development would 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.

The 146-unit Point and Ravine affordable apartment building was completed and opened for occupancy at the end of 2023.

Learn more about our real estate development impact analysis services

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