Geneva Solar Village

Organization Name: Community Preservation Corporation

Project Title: Geneva Solar Village

Project Location: Geneva, New York

Project Description:
The Community Preservation Corporation (CPC) has provided $11,900,000 in construction financing to Sunlight Lane LLC, for the construction of Geneva Solar Village a seventy-five (75) unit, residential apartment development, which will be powered and heated through on-site solar energy. The project will consist of three, three-story buildings, each that will contain 25 apartment units and a community room. Fifty percent of the units will be affordable to individuals and families at 80% AMI and below. In addition to the apartments, the community will benefit from a community chicken coop, community-composting station, a community garden, a dog park, forty charging stations for electric cars and a community fire pit to create a sustainable, eco-friendly community. In addition to the CPC construction loan, the project benefits from NYSERDA Buildings of Excellence Funding as well as funds from NYSERDA New Construction, NYSUN and a pre-development loan through NYCEEC. The developer is The Solar Home Factory, a construction company that specializes in the development of solar powered housing. It is anticipated the construction of Geneva Solar Village will be complete and occupied by October 2022.

Community Impact:
The Geneva Solar Village, located in Geneva, New York will serve as a model that a sustainable, eco-friendly community can be beautiful, functional, affordable and net-zero. Geneva is a community located on the banks of Seneca Lake, the largest of the Finger Lakes. The waterfront creates a dichotomy of housing costs. Million-dollar vacation homes and luxury apartments exist in a community where the two local colleges create a large student population, the combination of which creates a lack of affordable housing opportunities. The developer currently has a “waitlist” of over two hundred people interested in renting an apartment for both the affordable and the market rate units.
Geneva Solar Village will increase housing opportunities without increasing the use of fossil fuels and the pollutants they release. By providing fully electrified, carbon-neutral ready housing and charging stations for electric vehicles, as well as allowing residents to compost their organic food scraps, this development is reaching beyond Net Zero Energy and is a model for sustainable, affordable housing.

Organization Description:
CPC’s core lending and investing since inception has been three-fold: 1) Work with public and private partners to bring capital to communities; 2) Solve the most pressing housing issues facing the communities CPC serves; and 3) Preserve housing affordability and bolster sustainability by rebuilding, strengthening, and stabilizing neighborhoods.

Team Members:

Ryan Wallace, Tracey Wallace & Marc Rodriguez: Geneva Solar Village; Sadie McKeown: SVP, Lending & Initiatives, CPC; Miriam Zinter AVP, Mortgage Officer, CPC; Atalia Howe, AVP Initiatives & Impact

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