First Woodhaven homes listed for sale in Rome

ROME — The first of 250 new homes where military housing once stood hit the market in Rome recently.

Bonacio Construction, Inc. of Saratoga Springs just wrapped up work on the first seven homes of the 250 planned for its Woodhaven housing development on Park Drive in Rome. And Julie & Co. Realty, LLC, also of Saratoga Springs, held its first open house the weekend of July 9-10.

“We had, I think, about 25 groups that came over two days,” says Alex Cooley, property agent with Julie & Co. Realty. There will be open houses just about every weekend, and possibly some weekdays, over the next few months until the homes sell.

“We actually just got one under contract,” Cooley adds. That leaves just five homes left for sale, as of press time, as one of the homes serves a park model.

Cooley says the feedback has been great so far. “They’re beautiful homes,” he contends. The homes come in two designs, the one-story Woodstock and the two-story Gansevoort, and three different interior/exterior color palettes. Prices start at $352,000 for the Woodstock and $395,000 for the Gansevoort.

What makes these homes unique is that they come with an 18-year PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) program that will initially offset the property tax burden. “Hopefully, it’ll make things more affordable,” Cooley says.

“One of the roadblocks to homeownership in this area was taxes,” says Kate Jarosh, asset manager for Bonacio. The company worked with the City of Rome and the Oneida County IDA to hammer out the PILOT program, which gradually increases the assessed, taxed amount until it reaches full value after 18 years.

“It’s a nice ramp, so there are no cliffs at the end,” Jarosh notes. Another feature of the PILOT is that it stays with the property, so if an original owner sells, the new owner will benefit for the remaining years of the PILOT.

Woodhaven isn’t Bonacio’s first housing project in Rome. The company broke ground in 2019 on its Air City Lofts luxury apartments in Griffiss Business & Technology Park, the first phase of which opened in 2021.

“Griffiss is kind of a hidden gem,” Jarosh says of the former Air Force Base turned business park. The park is home to 72 businesses with nearly 6,000 employees — more people than were on base during the height of the Air Force installation, she notes. “With that, people have to live somewhere.”

In talking with those employees, Bonacio learned that many commuted from nearby Utica or even as far away as Syracuse. Few, Jarosh says, seemed to live in Rome due to a lack of housing.

Air City Lofts provided one solution to the housing shortage, she says, and Woodhaven is an extension of that for people looking for more than an apartment.

“The cool thing about Woodhaven is its proximity to a number of things,” she says. Of course, it’s a short commute for anyone working in the park. For families with teenagers, the Rome Free Academy high school is just around the corner, and the nearby Rome Family YMCA provides activities for all ages. “It’s a neat area that’s kind of the nexus of a lot of things,” Jarosh says.

Bonacio is working with businesses in the park to make sure they are aware of the housing, as well as other new-to-the-area companies like Wolfspeed in Marcy.

Bonacio plans to begin construction soon on the next seven homes, breaking the buildout into chunks for flexibility to alter designs if the market warrants, Jarosh says. It expects to complete the development in 2036. Bonacio is close to completing the purchase of an additional 10 acres near the YMCA that it will use for another housing development.