The Richmond Hill Community

Organization Name: The Arker Companies

Project Title: The Richmond Hill Community

Project Location: Richmond Hill, Queens

Project Goals:
Throughout the development of the Richmond Place Apartments and Richmond Hill Senior Living Residences, the development team was driven to accomplish these goals:

-To create quality, affordable housing for an intergenerational mix of low income tenants, including working families and the elderly.

-To revitalize a blighted area of the Richmond Hill neighborhood of Queens, while simultaneously helping to meet the community’s need for low income housing. In particular, remediating a previously contaminated site, designated as a Brownfield, to create room for housing and outdoor space for communal recreational use for all residents.

-To implement green building elements into the design of the project in effort to create a built environment with healthier living conditions and a greater sense of well-being for the members of the community. Green building techniques can help to substantially mitigate the effects of climate change and global warming, as the energy used in buildings is the main source of emissions in New York City.

Project Description:
The community of Richmond Hill Apartments and Richmond Hill Senior Living Residences contains two buildings built side by side to offer an inclusive community that consciously recognizes the diverse requirements of all of its members. Richmond Senior was developed in partnership with the New York State Development of Homes and Community Renewal to accommodate elderly tenants, of 62 years of age and older, with affordable housing. The project is a six-story, 65-unit new construction apartment building consisting of 59 one-bedrooms, 5 two-bedrooms and a two-bedroom superintendent’s unit. Richmond Place, developed in partnership with HDC and HPD, is a seven-story, 117-unit new construction apartment building, consisting of 13 studios, 28 one-bedrooms, 68 two-bedrooms, 7 three-bedrooms and 1 two-bedroom superintendent’s unit. The project was created to accommodate households earning no more than 60% of the Area Median Income.

Community Impact:
Richmond Place Apartments and Richmond Hill Senior Living Residences were built to provide affordable housing for a community of people in need. The tenants of Richmond Hill Senior are served by a comprehensive spectrum of supportive services, health and wellness and social activity programming. Richmond Hill Apartments provides comfortable homes and a significant amount of communal space - including indoor community rooms, lobby areas, and outdoor gardens and playgrounds - for the people of the community. The development of Richmond Hill converted a contaminated former industrial laundry facility, and created a platform for growth in a blighted neighborhood.

The project is also a participant of the NYSERDA Multi-Family Performance Program and Enterprise Green Communities due to green building elements that were made throughout the design of the project such as energy efficient lighting, heating and cooling systems, solar panels, landscaping, and outdoor recreational space. These measures created comfortable and healthy living conditions for the residents of the building, while also minimizing the negative impact this project will have on our environment in the future.

Organization Description:
The Arker Companies is a family owned, real estate development firm. For the last decade, they have been one of the most active developers in the ownership, construction, preservation and management of affordable housing in the City of New York. They are a fully integrated development company with wholly owned affiliated companies for construction and property management. The Arker Companies have developed or restored over 6,000 units and nearly a million square feet of commercial/retail space, with a total investment of over $1 billion in development projects exclusively within the five boroughs of New York City. The Arker Companies is owned and managed by its four principals: Sol Arker; Allan Arker; Alex Arker; and Dan Moritz.