If you’re in the market for an apartment later this year, but can’t afford a market rate, Ellicott Station may be the answer.
The Ellicott Street apartment complex has been taking names, Batavia Development Corporation Director Tammy Hathaway says.
A project that began last fall on the south side of Batavia, the 55-unit complex is expected to be ready for occupants by summer of this year, she said.
“There is an income qualification,” Hathaway said Tuesday. “People can go to ellicottstation.com and sign up.”
When the time comes that apartments are finalized, Savarino’s management will review the list and contact potential tenants, Hathaway said.
Once thoought to be more upper scale market rate rentals, the 55 units are considered “affordable housing,” 52 of which come with a balcony and nine with Americans with Disabilities Act mobility units. Units also are equipped with laundry amenities, and the complex has an elevator, community room, bicycle storage, covered off-street parking, and a playground, according to the website.
During the time of groundbreaking later last year, CEO Sam Savarino of Savarino Companies said that “It’s difficult for people to afford housing, and then there’s a shortage of quality, affordable housing.”
“In any event, the market study showed that there was a top end of the market that people could afford to pay in this area, otherwise, it wouldn’t be successful,” he said.
Abatement, demolition of two dilapidated buildings, land remediation, reconstruction of public storm drainage infrastructure, and construction of a 55-unit apartment building was — and still is — on the way toward a summer 2023 completion. The $22.5 million project site is to also offer adaptive reuse of the building to be used as a brewery, restaurant and/or events facility, plus improvements made to a public ‘Rails to Trails’ walking trail.
Workers have been busy constructing the four-story apartment complex, and it has been exciting to see the progress, Hathaway said.
“It’s a gorgeous building,” she said last fall during a tour of the defunct Della Penna site that’s part of the project.
The total apartment project cost is $20.7 million for 74,000 gross square feet, four stories, 55 units, 52 balcony units, nine units meeting Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, 37 garage parking spaces and 44 surface parking spaces.
Defined as “workforce housing,” with one and two-bedroom units, the Ellicott Street complex will most likely attract people earning about $20 an hour or below, otherwise deemed as affordable housing.
The project is part of Batavia’s Downtown Revitalization initiative and is located within a state-designated Brownfield Opportunity Area, which requires abatements and remediation from prior use of toxic materials on the property.
Top Photo of the current Ellicott Station project in Batavia, by Howard Owens; and file photo of the groundbreaking by Howard Owens. Bottom two photos also from today of construction by Howard Owens.
