Work wraps up on Fairmont Park Apartments in Johnson City

JOHNSON CITY, N.Y. — Crew have completed work on the $11.7 million, 34-apartment, 17-building Fairmont Park Apartments, a project the state describes as a new “sustainable, flood-resistant” development in the Fairmont Park neighborhood of Johnson City.

“The Fairmont Park Apartments project was developed to address the devastation that occurred in the Fairmont Park neighborhood of the town of Union as a result of the flood of 2011. Prior to these floods, the Fairmont Park Neighborhood was considered the most stable neighborhood in the Town of Union and due to the damage caused by these floods, many of the homes were destroyed and had to be demolished,” per a news release about Wednesday’s formal-opening ceremony that the project developer and manager forwarded to CNYBJ.

The development was designed to “rejuvenate the neighborhood” and offer affordable family housing in the Johnson City Central School District, the office of Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday.

The new buildings are constructed on 20 lots purchased through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and state-sponsored Community Development Block Grant disaster-recovery programs that left the property available for “planned, sustainable and flood-resistant redevelopment,” per Hochul’s office.

In all, the project involved 149 buyouts, primarily in the areas of Argonne Avenue, South Endwell, Fairmont Park, Westover, and West Corners.

The Fairmont Park Apartments include 17 duplex buildings each with a two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartment, for a total of 34 homes, Hochul’s office said

The buildings are energy efficient, built to FEMA flood-resiliency standards, and constructed above base flood elevations with no living space or mechanicals on the first floor. Carports are provided under the elevated structures along with surface parking.

State financing for the development includes federal low-income housing tax credits that generated $6.7 million in equity from New York State Homes and Community Renewal and $3.4 million in subsidies. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority provided $41,000 in support. Other funding includes $835,000 from the Federal Housing Trust Fund and $600,000 from NBT Bank.

This new community was developed by Lakewood Development II, LLC and The SEPP Group and is co-managed by SEPP Management Co., Inc. and Two Plus Four Management, per Hochul’s office.

The development is part of the state’s $20 billion, five-year housing plan to make housing accessible and to combat homelessness by building or preserving more than 100,000 affordable homes and 6,000 homes with supportive services. In the last decade, HCR has invested nearly $276 million in Southern Tier multifamily developments to produce nearly 3,000 affordable apartments.