Historic Buildings are charming, but challenging. Sometimes, they need help to continue to serve their communities.
Built in 1867 on the corner of 8th Avenue and West 46th Street, 300 West 46th Street is a 5-building complex at the gateway to Restaurant Row. Used as rooming houses in the 1920s, then as rundown and dangerous rentals in the 1980s, it was purchased in the 1990s by Clinton Housing Development Corporation to create 70 units of permanent supportive housing with on-site social services.
Clinton Housing Development Company (CHDC) is a not-for-profit community-based organization dedicated to building community by preserving and creating high quality, permanently affordable housing in Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen.
Many residents of 300 West 46th Street have extremely low or no income and have experienced homelessness. Some of the residents have lived in the building for more than 20 years and have seen time take its toll on apartments and common spaces.
That’s where Leviticus’ Project Start Fund (PSF) comes in.
The PSF offers lower rates and more accessible terms for affordable rental housing development, preservation or renovation projects in New York State that serve low-, very low- and extremely low-income households. The Leviticus Fund was able to establish this funding pool thanks to a Capital Magnet Fund grant from the federal CDFI Fund.
Work at 300 West 46th Street is part of a larger project to preserve affordable housing and community spaces in seven buildings around 8th, 9th and 10th Avenues in Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen. The bridge loan from PSF will support the cost of modernizing building systems, including window replacements, landscaping and site improvements, and will be repaid by disbursement of a grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York.
The greenest building is the one already built, as the saying goes. We’re happy to support CHDC in their commitment to preserve the quality and availability of this much-needed affordable housing.
