Lottery For New Mixed Income Apartments Held In Riverhead

RIVERHEAD, NY — After months of anticipation, Community Development Corporation of Long Island and Conifer Realty, LLC held a lottery at Riverhead Town Hall to make dreams come true.

The lottery was organized to select residents and establish a waiting list for 45 brand new affordable apartments that are nearing completion on West Main Street.

The new mixed income apartment development in Riverhead will afford an infusion of workforce housing opportunities to the area.

Community Development Corporation of Long Island and Conifer Realty, LLC teamed up to create the 45 mixed-income apartments in the five-story building that also features a fitness center and laundry facilities.

"Residents will enjoy walking or biking to work, restaurants, shops and more. Peconic Crossing will create spacious energy-efficient, one and two bedroom apartment homes," developers said.

Peconic Crossing will also offer gallery space available for residents to Create - Collaborate - Live, with preference will be given to artists and those displaced victims of a covered storm including, but not limited to, Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee.

The one bedroom apartments will be rented for $976 to $1,159 and the two bedrooms, for $1,169 to $1,562, according to plans.

Gwen O’Shea, president and CEO of CDCLI, said more than 900 applications were received for 45 units. "This tremendous response reinforces the demand for our collective efforts to create attainable housing in downtown communities, and to provide stable homes for our diverse community members – artists, seniors, singles, families, and displaced storm survivors," she said.

Conifer Regional Vice President Betty Perry greeted all of the lottery participants and explained that all names would be drawn and numbered, that applicants would be notified by mail of their lottery number, and that screening and determination of artist and storm preference would begin shortly.

As excitement mounted Conifer staff supervised the drawing of names and input the information into a database.

The first applicant drawn who was present in the room was Frances Twyman, a local resident.

“Most of my income goes towards rent now," she said. "I’m retired, but I’m forced to work part-time to make ends meet.”

Julie Morris was the first artist drawn in the room. “I feel incredibly lucky to have been selected for the possibility of getting an apartment that’s affordable and supports artists.”

Artist Katherine Silvestro agreed. “I’ve been looking a better apartment for at least a year. This is a weight lifted off my shoulders. It’s impossible for a single young mother who’s a business owner to get a home. I’ll be a lot closer to work, and I’m very interested in the downtown area and the galleries.”

“It is critical for Suffolk County to support these types of transit oriented, smart growth developments that take advantage of our vibrant walkable downtowns,” said Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone. “Peconic Crossing provides our residents with attainable housing and builds upon our constant effort to grow our economy."

Recognizing the role of art in creating and supporting a vibrant downtown, Town of Riverhead Supervisor Laura Jens-Smith said Riverhead is looking forward to welcoming new artist residents and their "creative energies" to Main Street.

"We know they’ll enjoy both the inspiration of living alongside the river and Grangebel Park as well as the convenience of our downtown district," Jens-Smith said.

“On behalf of the board of East End Arts and its executive director Pat Snyder, staff, and itd 800 members and families, East End Arts Board President thanked all involved "for considering the arts as a building block in the revitalization of downtown Riverhead . . .It is a great example of collaboration between government, private and non-profit organizations.”

Funding and incentives for the new housing have been provided by NYS Empire State Development, NYS Homes and Community Renewal, the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery, Suffolk County, the Riverhead Industrial Development Agency, Capital One Bank, Community Development Trust, JPMorgan Chase, TD Charitable Foundation, CDCLI Funding Corporation and others, town officials said.

Patch courtesy photos.