Affordable Housing for Intergenerational, Multigenerational Families

A big societal change in recent years has been that many grandparents are bringing up grandchildren. Now there are signs that affordable housing is starting to target these often low-income intergenerational or multigenerational families.

In Paterson, NJ, for instance, WinnCompanies and development partners Owen Tonkins and Daryll Tyson of ART-JIUS created Mill Street Square. This transformational new development has set aside a significant number of units for grandparent-grandchildren tenant preference.

Fifty-two of the 74 units at the project have been targeted to grandparent families at 50 percent or less of area median income (AMI). Those tenants are eligible for project-based rental assistance from the Paterson Housing Authority. The balance is units for those making 80 percent or less of AMI.

David Ginsberg, senior vice president at WinnDevelopment, called the project “a labor of love” and “a work of many hands.”

He says, “This is the first project that we’ve worked on designed specifically to serve this vulnerable population,” giving credit to the many partners—development, municipal and nonprofit—involved in the work that transformed the old Argus Mill near the Great Falls of the Passaic River.

“Hopefully it’s the first of many,” he adds.

Grandparents Nonprofit Partner
Ginsberg gives a special nod to the Grandparents Relative Care Resources Center (GPRCRC) of Paterson “who for years before we were even involved in this project identified this growing population.”

Ginsberg says Paterson has “a tremendous population and a serious need” for this kind of housing. Now 100 percent occupied, the project has “every type of family configuration you could ever imagine – different ages and different arrangements, and it all works, and we’ve got a building that is designed to support it.”

The land Mill Street Square was built on was previously a surface parking lot owned by the Paterson Parking Authority, making it underused and underdeveloped compared to its surroundings in the Great Falls Historic District.

Winn worked with the Parking Authority to create a new public parking garage and private parking for the residents of Mill Street Square.

New construction above the parking garage accounts for 68 of the 74 units, while the other six two-bedroom units come from the adaptive reuse of the Argus Yarn Company Mill. This 7,700 square-foot brick mill property made mosquito netting among other products. It was financed using Low Income Housing Tax Credits and Historic Tax Credits with a total development cost of approximately $43 million.

The GPRCRC, which provides services, such as a food pantry and diaper drives to residents, is now based on the bottom floor of the historic mill (along with community space). Two historic single-family homes, known as the Ryle Thomson houses on the site have been turned into a base for the Paterson Music Project and Winn’s regional management effort.

Using a “Ghost House”
In an unusual design element, a “ghost house” exists mimicking elements of a third house formerly on the site that is now being used as a courtyard entryway.

Ginsberg says an archaeological study of the site turned up items, such as mugs and ceramics, that are being donated to the local history museum.

“There’s a lot of really interesting stuff” associated with Mill Street Square and the city itself, says Ginsberg.

The Falls District has seen a lot of redevelopment and tourism in recent years, some associated with the success of the play “Hamilton,” since Alexander Hamilton was a notable figure in the development of Paterson. Paterson is also a notable literary site, with poets, such as Allen Ginsberg and William Carlos Williams associated with the area.

Another redevelopment within sight of Mill Street Square is Hinchliffe Stadium, a site where a Negro Baseball League team played for many years.

Ginsberg touts the assistance of governmental officers with the development. “One of the key funding sources for our project was the New Jersey Economic Development Authority ERG program, which stands for Economic Reinvestment and Growth.”

Combining Parking with Development

The state incentive became a major aid for Paterson to realize projects like the stadium, Mill Street Square and others that combined parking and economic or housing development.

“I’ve been to a lot of places in the world—Asia, Brazil—and there are times I think the parking and congestion problems in Paterson are as challenging as any I’ve ever seen,” says Ginsberg. “That’s why there was a big focus on projects making parking facilities.”

When the Historic District was laid out back in the day there certainly was not enough thought given to potential density, he says.

Paterson still retains an industrial core, which adds to the congestion. “I think that’s why the city was focused on maximizing the air rights to these parking lots.”

Ginsberg notes that the public portion of the garage built at Mill Street is full.

This is the development team’s first mill project in New Jersey, though they have a great historic adaptive reuse record throughout the East Coast.

Historical research was required. “Unsurprisingly, where you have a place of natural wonder and great beauty, like the Falls, and tribes that make it a special place, we had to do our fair share of research.”

One thing found was a house once owned by the Colt family of firearms fame. No old revolvers were found, however.

Ginsberg says what helped make this a special project—the nexus of doing community good, local support and historical interest—was developing “a great relationship” with Paterson Director of Historic Preservation Gianfranco Archimede, a historic consultant at Public Archaeology Laboratories and archaeologist at ACME Heritage Consulting.

“In Paterson, we weren’t fighting uphill to build the building,” he says.

In its press release, Winn and ART-JIUS noted, “More than $5 million in contracts were awarded to Section 3 and Minority/Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBE) businesses, exceeding project goals by more than 35 percent. Nine MWBE businesses were hired during construction and 20 percent of all construction spending went to MWBE businesses. Working with its partner, Renaissance Groups, WinnDevelopment and ART-JIUS also helped four existing local businesses become certified and registered as MWBEs in New Jersey.

“The project was certified through both the Zero Energy Ready Homes and Energy Star Multifamily New Construction green building programs. The high-efficiency design features include continuous insulation and triple pane windows, energy recovery ventilation systems, high-efficiency heating and cooling equipment, LED lighting and ENERGY STAR appliances. The newly constructed residential building features a 97-kilowatt solar PV system on its roof, which will produce approximately 120,000 kilowatt hours of clean, renewable electricity every year, offsetting approximately 35 percent of the building’s electricity load,” Winn and ART-JIUS says.

“When we designed the building, we had some feedback to scale back the modern elements a little bit,” Ginsberg says. “We’re very proud of the building,” he says, as it manages to thread the needle between historical and sustainability elements.

Ginsberg praises Paterson Housing Authority, its local development partner and the two nonprofits. “It takes a village,” he says.

The executive hopes “this is not a one-off” and that it will set new standards for the company.