Maple Center Renovations Planned Under New Developer

The privatization of Maple Center senior housing will bring money to New Rochelle's coffers and offer improvements to the apartments.

Previously, Maple Center—which has 109 tenants and was built in the 1970s—was run as a nonprofit organization, and was not on the tax rolls. Mountco Construction and Development Corp. will oversee the renovations and manage the building.

At a recent meeting, the City Council approved the payment in lieu of taxes in the amount of $60,000 per year, with a 2.5 percent annual increase from Mountco, along with a one time impact fee of $150,000 to be used for downtown improvements.

John Madeo, Mountco's executive vice president said there are three categories of tenants in the building. One group is under the Section 8 program, another group receives rent supplements from the state and a third is considered market rate.

He said the tenants now under Section 8 will continue paying a percentage of their income for rent. The rent supplements will be replaced by the Section 8 program. The tenants now paying market rate will be put on Section 8 and 11 of those 32 will be paying lower rents.

"The whole idea was to structure this so the tenants will be protected," Madeo said, adding that at no time will the tenants be paying more than 30 percent of their income in rent.

Rents, he said, will not increase or decrease until late 2012 or early 2013.

The project is locked into the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Housing Assistance Payment Contract for 20 years.

Madeo said the project has to close by the end of October or it will lose the state funding.

"We will start the rehabilitation as soon as we close," he said.

Candice Abraham has lived at Maple Center for one and a half years and was enthusiastic about the upcoming changes.

"It's the best alternative they could come up with," she said.

Abraham will not be affected by any rent change.

"Except I will get a new kitchen," she said.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly referred to the name of the senior housing building.