May 4, 2023, Schenectady, N.Y., – Governor Kathy Hochul today announced affordable housing tax credits needed to construct a $27 million development in Schenectady’s Mont Pleasant neighborhood. Schenectady County officials cheered the news as a game changing development for the Crane Street corridor and said the award was the direct the result of a multi-year effort by the County’s unified economic development team working closely with the City to create a shovel ready site, build off of other recent developments in Mont Pleasant and submit a winning tax credit application.
“When we broke ground on the new Mont Pleasant library in 2018 it was the Legislature’s hope that our investment would spur additional development in the Crane-Main Corridor,” said Anthony Jasenski, Chair of the Schenectady County Legislature. “We thank Governor Hochul for this crucial tax credit allocation that will bring the total public and private investment in the neighborhood to over $50 million. By working together to revitalize our neighborhoods we are not only transforming blighted and vacant properties into new developments, but also creating a brighter future for the community and restoring a sense of pride and hope in the hearts of its residents.”
Mayor Gary McCarthy said, “This is the outcome we hoped for and worked for, and I am so grateful to Governor Hochul and her team at NYS HCR for picking our project that will continue our record setting investments in Schenectady neighborhoods. We are also pleased to be working closely with DePaul Properties on this major redevelopment project as our past work with this developer has yielded outstanding results.”
Richard Ruzzo, Chair of the Capital Region Land Bank and a member of the Schenectady County Legislature said, “A $27 million investment in Mont Pleasant is certainly cause to celebrate. The Land Bank is pleased to partner with Metroplex, the City and County, SCAP and others to make this project a reality and we are so proud today to see this very outstanding project for Mont Pleasant come together and be funded.”
“DePaul is grateful to Governor Kathy Hochul and our partners in Schenectady County for assisting us in providing quality, affordable new housing for residents including seniors and others who may need support services that we can provide right on-site with our partnership with Schenectady Community Action Program (SCAP),” said DePaul President Mark Fuller. “We look forward to changing even more lives for individuals in Schenectady’s Mont Pleasant neighborhood and across New York State by offering housing stability and affordability.”
The new development will create 60 attractive, high quality, affordable housing units including a four-story 46-unit building and a three-story 14-unit building. Collectively the development has been named “The Mosaic” to reflect the diversity of the neighborhood and the extensive involvement by the neighborhood in developing this project and other recent investments. The smart growth project transforms nine vacant parcels with two attractive buildings and enhances the Crane Street business corridor.
The project developer is DePaul Properties. Founded in 1958 in Rochester, New York, DePaul has built new housing developments throughout New York State. In Schenectady, DePaul successfully developed the Joseph L. Allen apartments on Albany Street.
The project brings to more than $50 million the extensive public, private and philanthropic investments in the Mont Pleasant neighborhood in recent years including the new County Mont Pleasant Library and Literacy Center, the $13 million Boys and Girls Club, expansions and upgrades to Mont Pleasant parks including a new splash pad, the removal of over fifty blighted buildings by the Capital Region Land Bank and City of Schenectady and the completion of a New York State Main Street grant by Better Community Neighborhoods (BCNI) and Metroplex to improve the facades of neighboring businesses adjacent to the Mosaic development. Additionally, the City of Schenectady has received over $5 million in funding to create a safer complete streets corridor that will connect Mont Pleasant, Hamilton Hill and downtown. This includes the section of Crane Street directly in front of Mosaic Apartments.
Local funding support for the Crane Street Mosaic project includes $525,000 from Metroplex and $200,000 from the Capital Region Land Bank. The project has strong support from the Mont Pleasant Neighborhood Association and the Mont Pleasant Merchants Association. The City of Schenectady will receive $138,300 from selling the vacant lots to the project developer.
Priority will be given to neighborhood residents for the new apartments. A number of units will be reserved for seniors. The Schenectady Community Action Program (SCAP) will provide services to residents as needed. BCNI, Metroplex and the Land Bank provided assistance to DePaul Properties in preparing the winning tax credit application.
All City approvals for the project are already in place with a groundbreaking expected in the fall.