LBHA gets $3.2M to replace Grant Court

New complex will have 70 rental units, community center

BY CHRISTINE VARNO Staff Writer

BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer

Long Branch Long Branch LONG BRANCH — The Long Branch Housing Authority (LBHA) has received an infusion of funds to support the reconstruction of a city apartment complex.

On June 10, the LBHA was awarded a tax credit grant in the amount of $1,381,708 and a balanced housing/homes express grant in the amount of $1,917,478. from the New Jersey Mortgage Finance Agency (NJMFA).

The state grants will go toward rebuilding the 50-year-old Grant Court apartment complex, according to LBHA public relations coordinator Takia Walker.

“This is the second phase of LBHA’s master plan to revitalize the Central Avenue corridor,” Walker said last week.

Plans for phase two call for demolishing Grant Court and constructing a new apartment complex in its place.

The complex currently comprises 82 affordable rental units on the corner of Central and Liberty streets, and has problems with its infrastructure, such as sewage lines and heating systems, Walker said.

The new complex will have 70 units and will cost approximately $15,789,789. It will include a 17,500-square-foot community center on the premises, according to Walker.

Funds from the LBHA operating budget will be used to complete the project, Walker said.

In June of last year, the LBHA received a tax credit grant in the amount of $781,809 and a balanced housing/home express grant in the amount of $1,121,340 from the NJMFA to fund the first phase of the agency’s master plan for Affordable Housing.

That phase consisted of razing the Seaview Manor complex, and plans call for the new 40-unit townhouse-style attached homes complex to be constructed on roughly 3 acres of land on the corner of Seaview and Ellis avenues.

Demolition of Seaview Manor commenced in September and construction for the new project, which is estimated at $8.1 million, is expected to begin in the fall, according to Walker.

The LBHA also applied for a HOPE VI grant in February in the amount of $12.5 million. The grant was established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide funds to areas in need of improvement, according to LBHA Executive Director Tyrone Garrett. The agency is still waiting to hear if it has been approved.

The grant money would be used to help fund the new Grant Court complex, Garrett said.

HUD distributes 165 grant awards annually throughout 98 cities in the country, totaling $4.5 billion.

The LBHA applied for the HOPE VI grant last year to assist in funding the Seaview Manor complex, but was notified in September that it had not been awarded the grant, according to Garrett, who said the grant application was a competitive process.

Garrett said he is confident that the LBHA will receive grant money from HOPE VI this year.