Submitted Photo
Pictured is a rendering of the Gateway Lofts project in Jamestown. It is meant to transform the former Chautauqua Hardware Factory into a 110-unit, multi-family affordable housing complex, with supportive wrap-around services for tenants and the community at large.
A multi-million proposed housing project in the city of Jamestown that has been stalled recently is getting some help from the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency.
On Tuesday, the Southern Tier Environments for Living was approved by the county IDA Board of Directors for a $325,000 low-interest loan that will help jump-start the Gateway Lofts project at 31 Water St. The money will be the first loan from a newly established Brownfield Revolving Loan Fund for brownfield cleanup and redevelopment.
The loan funding will help with STEL’s urgent need to install a sub slab depressurization system, which is required by the state Department of Environmental Conversation before development can take place.
The Gateway Lofts project is designed to transform the Gateway Center, the former Chautauqua Hardware factory, into a 110-unit, multi-family affordable housing complex, which will be anchored by supportive wrap-around services.
The $67 million project is a collaboration among Community Helping Hands, the YWCA of Jamestown, and STEL.
Thomas Whitney with STEL was at Tuesday’s IDA meeting and discussed the project.
“It got approved by the (Jamestown) Planning (Commission) in February of 2020. Unfortunately in March of 2020 everything went sideways with the economy and COVID,” he said. “We had an investor at that point, but that investor has pulled out. They don’t even invest in housing anymore.”
On Tuesday, Whitney said they have a new investor. He is hopeful that the overall project financing will be finalized in the coming months, with construction anticipated to begin in mid-to-late 2025.
Whitney said of 110 units, STEL will provide wrap-around services to 40 apartments for people with disabilities and the YWCA will have 15 apartments. The remaining 55 apartments will be “generic affordable housing.”
All of the apartments will be placed on the second, third and fourth floor. On the first floor will be Community Helping Hands, Chautauqua County Mental Health Association, and possibly St. Susan’s.
“I don’t know if they’re going to be there or not. They’ve been debating whether they want to stay or not,” Whitney said, referring to the food bank.
He noted there’s drug and alcohol counseling across the street at UPMC Hospital.
The county IDA Board of Directors unanimously approved the request.
This project marks the second time the county IDA and STEL have collaborated in the last year. In 2023, STEL and their partner, Park Grove Development, took over as the developer of the Silver Creek High School property in the village of Silver Creek. That project, which involves the demolition of the derelict former school building and the development of 54 affordable senior housing units, is slated to close and move forward by the end of 2024.
“STEL has been a great partner of the CCIDA in redeveloping key properties of community importance, delivering more affordable housing opportunities, and eliminating blight in Chautauqua County, all of which align with our economic development goals,” said county IDA Chief Executive Officer Mark Geise. “I can’t thank Tom Whitney and his team enough for their determination in making these complicated projects realities.”
In 2019, Chautauqua County and the county IDA re-engaged in brownfields redevelopment activities to improve blighted and underutilized areas in the county, improve the health and safety of its citizens by cleaning up contaminated sites, increase the county’s tax base, spur job creation, and where applicable, kick-start revitalization activities within neighborhoods throughout the municipalities in the county.
The county IDA was able to establish its Brownfield Revolving Loan Fund in 2023 after it applied for and received a $600,000 United States Environmental Protection Agency grant in late 2022 to initiate this program.
“It was imperative that the Chautauqua County Government support the establishment of the CCIDA’s Brownfield Revolving Loan Fund,” Chautauqua County Executive PJ Wendel said. “Like so many other municipalities in the Northeast, there is a long list of legacy industrial sites in Chautauqua County that need attention and remediation. This fund will help in that effort and, as a result, help to grow and strengthen our local economy as we continue to move forward.”