Affordable senior housing project planned for church property

A Long Island developer is planning to build a $44 million affordable senior housing project on church property in Freeport. 

Levittown-based D&F Development Group is in contract to purchase a little over two-thirds of the .98-acre property owned by the Refuge Apostolic Church of Christ at 106 Broadway to construct an 80-unit apartment building for lower-income renters aged 55 and over. The existing church building will remain and continue to operate. 

The development will be called the Bishop Ronald H. Carter Manor in honor of the longtime leader of the church who died in Nov. 2022 at the age of 84. 

The five-story, 76,669-square-foot building will be built on .69 acres on the corner of Broadway and Rosedale Avenue and bring 75 one-bedroom apartments, four two-bedroom apartments and an apartment for a superintendent. More than half of the units (48) in the income-restricted complex will be offered to renters earning no more than 50 percent of the area median income, while 23 of the one-bedroom units will be leased to people earning up to 60 percent of the AMI. The remaining eight apartments will be rented to people earning up to 30 percent of the AMI. 

The new building will have a community room, lounge and outdoor courtyard, as well as below-ground and ground-level parking for 94 cars. The developer has applied for tax breaks from the Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency, and it is requesting a 30-year payment-lieu-of-taxes agreement. 

“This development will bring a positive change to the Village of Freeport in such that it will provide affordable living quarters for people who have worked their entire lives, to be able to retire while having a sense of security and stability in a safe environment,” said Tanya Carter, daughter of the late Bishop Carter. “The development being housed on the land of Refuge, will allow all tenants the feeling of being safe and sheltered from pursuit, danger, or trouble. God showed the late Bishop Ronald Carter in a dream 59 years ago this location and how it would be a blessing and beneficial to the community at large. It was his plan to allow the church to be a beacon of light and we are extremely blessed to have it become a reality.” 

D&F, headed by principals Leonard D’Amico and Peter Florey, has been busy developing several affordable housing projects on Long Island in the last few years. In May, the company announced its plans for a new $48.2 million affordable apartment development in Wyandanch. The four-story, 82,000-square-foot building will be constructed on a 1-acre site at 309 Merritt Ave., located about a block from the Wyandanch Long Island Rail Road station. 

Dubbed Alegria North, the project will bring 81 apartments, consisting of 41 one-bedroom units, 36 two-bedroom units, three three-bedroom units and a two-bedroom apartment for the building’ superintendent. Twenty-one of the apartments will be set aside for tenants with special needs, with services provided by Concern for Independent Living and New Hour Women & Children-LI. The Wyandanch building will be restricted to renters earning from 30 percent to 70 percent of the area median income, with monthly rents ranging from $1,169 to $2,500. 

D&F is currently constructing a $38.4 million affordable apartment complex in Farmingdale. The 71-unit development called Sterling Green at Farmingdale brings 31 one-bedroom units, 37 two-bedroom units, two three-bedroom apartments and a two-bedroom unit for the building’s superintendent. The apartments are being rented through a lottery system to people with annual incomes between $35,000 and $80,000, depending on household size and monthly rents at Sterling Green range from $800 to $2,145, according to the developer. 

The company is also set to begin construction this month on the long-awaited affordable housing project called Matinecock Court in East Northport. The development will bring 146 limited-equity cooperative homes to a 14.5-acre site at the northwest corner of Elwood Road and Pulaski Road. 

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