South Wedge will have new look with rebuilt River Park Commons

Jim Stinson
Staff writer

A $35 million plan to rebuild River Park Commons in the South Wedge is closer to fruition after preliminary federal approval, with many tenants in the low-rise portion of the housing complex ready to move with help from government.

Only 35 families remain in the 202-unit low-rise section, which will be razed and replaced by high-end housing, with demolition tentatively set to begin in mid-2009.

Rehabilitation of the 200 affordable units in the adjacent 13-story River Park tower could begin sooner, possibly in December, according to Dick Crossed, chairman of Conifer Realty LLC, which owns the complex.

A challenge has been to move families permanently out of the low-rise portion. Complicating matters has been the fact that 18 of the remaining 35 families are Somali immigrants who want to stay close to jobs, religious services and tutoring programs.

While many of River Park's Somalis are now citizens or have had legal residency for years, there are still some translation issues. The city has lent its help by having consultants and staff work with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which strictly regulates relocation efforts.

The South Wedge Planning Committee, a nonprofit that generally supports the Conifer plan, recently expressed concern in its newsletter about keeping Somalis close to their communities. That concern reflects the Somalis' high regard for the near-downtown area.

Mohammad Mohammad, 28, moved into a low-rise apartment in River Park Commons in 1998. He left in 2006 for Greece as the building aged and service for repairs became harder to obtain, he said.

Mohammad said he comes back to the area every day, as his work as a taxi driver brings him downtown. The River Park religion center and the tutoring programs are valuable to the Somali community, he said.

Other Somali centers

Yet there are other parts of Rochester that have Somali communities intact and strong, said Miriam Zinter, project manager for the Greater Rochester Housing Partnership, which is located in the tower and is helping to relocate residents. A portion of Van Auker Street, just west of downtown, has attracted many Somalis. The tower residents will have to move only temporarily as their apartments are rehabbed, Crossed said. The work will be done a few units at a time.

The South Wedge complex, which runs from 185-405 Mt. Hope Ave., has long been a target for redevelopment as it went in and out of bankruptcy.

Frustrating South Wedge residents is that the aging complex sits along the Genesee River's edge, blocking access to and views of the riverfront. Conifer acquired rights to the property in 2004.

Soon after, the city announced redevelopment plans, and tenants began getting a general information notice from the federal government.

The city of Rochester has promised two loans to Conifer and made an $800,000 grant for relocation expenses. The process generally benefits the tenants, as income-qualified residents get moving assistance payments and some get bumped to the top of waiting lists for federally subsidized housing, said Zinter.

The project, when completed, will be renamed Erie Harbor.

Built in the 1970s as public housing and originally called Genesee Gateway Houses, River Park Commons is built on industrial land that contains rubble, compromising the soil, Crossed said. That limited the type of projects Conifer could erect on the site.

Conifer plans to put 12 buildings on the low-rise site, basically updating the project. The 100 new units will have 20 affordable-housing units, with the other 80 going at market rates.

The low-rise complex now houses mostly residents looking for low rents. Many have rent subsidies; others do not and have solid incomes.

Ironically, the clunky and concrete design of the low-rise complex isolated the residents from the community, even as Somalis gathered there as a community, said Bob Boyd, executive director of the South Wedge Planning Committee.

Crossed said the design was poor, the space and width of the rooms were inadequate and the construction of townhouses on top of each other failed.

"It just doesn't function properly," said Crossed.

The new low-rise townhouses will be built next to each other.

Satisfying HUD

The complex has been in bankruptcy for more than a decade, Crossed said, but Conifer came along four years ago and made a $6.5 million purchase agreement with the state. The agreement is contingent upon completing financing and completing all requirements of HUD and the Urban Relocation Act of 1970.

Crossed said a recent "decoupling" decision by HUD has brought Conifer closer to its goal of redeveloping the site. It took Conifer Realty more than three years to get the federal approval.

The decoupling approval essentially means Conifer can devise a demolition-and-rebuild plan for the low-rise apartments and a separate rehab plan for the tower. The latter project will keep the 200 units in the tower, renovating the units and improving the building's exterior.

The 2004 cost estimate for the entire project ran as high as $35 million.

Crossed said construction costs may have increased 10 percent since then.

Zoning and plans have yet to be tweaked, with South Wedge leaders such as Boyd wanting more parking, access to the river and architectural changes.

Rent for 80 percent of the low-rise townhouses will fall between $900 and $1,400 monthly. The 20 percent of the units for affordable-housing candidates could see rents between $600 and $750 monthly.

The entire tower will remain an affordable-housing building, Crossed said.

JFSTINSO@DemocratandChronicle.com