[Durham INC] Durham's Maplewood Square & Park Grand Opening Monday

[Blalock, Amy]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 24, 2010

 

Contacts:

Dave Beck, Self-Help, (919) 956-4495

Selina Mack, Durham Community Land Trustees, (919) 490-0063

Sam Eyre, DHIC, Inc., (919) 417-2237

 

Affordable Senior Living Apartments and Park for Kids Open in Durham's
West End

Maplewood Square and Maplewood Park Replace Blight, Create Community 

 

DURHAM, N.C.  - Three non-profit development partners are joining
together with the City of Durham, Duke University, and the West End
neighborhood to celebrate the grand opening of Maplewood Square
Apartments and Maplewood Park.  

 

The ribbon-cutting ceremony and reception will be held Monday, June 28,
2010, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 1520 Chapel Hill Road, between Morehead
Avenue and Duke University Road in Durham.  The $4.5 million affordable
housing and neighborhood revitalization project offers low-cost living
to seniors aged 55 or better, and a public park built by volunteers,
suitable for small children.  Both projects replace a formerly blighted
area.  

 

City of Durham Mayor William V. "Bill" Bell, N.C. Housing Finance Agency
Chairman Lucius Jones, Duke University Vice President for Durham &
Regional Affairs Phail Wynn, and NeighborWorks(c) America CEO Ken Wade,
are among the featured speakers.  Residents of Maplewood Square and
representatives from all project partners will also be on hand.  The
apartment building will be open for viewing, and the park will also be
open to visitors of all ages.

 

Maplewood Square offers 26 one-bedroom and 6 two-bedroom apartments
ranging in size from 717 square feet to 964 square feet.  Features
include outdoor sitting areas, a multipurpose room, resident computer
center with free high-speed Internet access, tenant storage areas, a
common laundry room, and on-site property management.  All apartments
are affordable based on income, and four are reserved for seniors with
disabilities. Rents range from $317 to $510 per month.  

 

The project team includes DHIC, Inc., an award-winning developer of
lower-cost housing in the Triangle; Self-Help, a statewide community
development financial institution headquartered in Durham; and Durham
Community Land Trustees (DCLT), a community development corporation
which is active in the West End community.  Both DHIC and DCLT are
national network members of NeighborWorks(r) America, a national
development intermediary.

 

"Early land and financial commitments from the City of Durham and Duke
University helped leverage more than $3 million in investment from other
sources," said Gregg Warren of DHIC, Inc., lead developer for the
project.  "It takes cooperation and coordination for an effort like this
one, and the City of Durham, Duke, and other partners really stepped up
to the plate."

 

"It's exciting to see how the coordination of nine City departments,
with leadership from the talented and committed staff members in Durham
Parks and Recreation, General Services, and Community Development, has
resulted in such a visible and concrete impact to the neighborhood,"
said Mayor Bell.  "Federal and state funds helped secure the base that
so many other supporters have built on, and the City of Durham is a
proud contributor to the effort."

 

The project is the direct result of neighborhood conversations that
began in 2000 as part of Duke University's Quality of Life Project.
Residents asked Duke officials to help them find a way to rebuild a
neighborhood park and expand the supply of attractive, affordable,
energy-efficient, and low-maintenance homes for retirees and other
seniors in the West End.  

 

Durham Community Land Trustees, which has been long-active in the West
End neighborhood, helped recruit Self-Help and DHIC, Inc., which brought
financial resources and extensive multi-family development know-how to
the project.  The City of Durham offered the vacant City-owned parcel
next to a City park, then granted federal funds to purchase and remove
blighted structures on six surrounding lots.  

 

"We are pleased that cornerstone support from the University and this
great team of partners, in response to the inspiration and guidance of
Quality of Life Project, joined forces to build these homes and this
playground in the heart of the West End," said Dr. Wynn.  "This truly is
a day for celebration."

 

Selina Mack, executive director of Durham Community Land Trustees,
agreed. "This has been an outstanding opportunity to create an
intergenerational impact - grandparents, their children, and their
grandchildren all benefit from this partnership, which adds both beauty
and continuity to our growing neighborhood."

 

"Duke University did a wonderful job engaging neighborhood residents and
nonprofit organizations throughout the planning process," said Evan
Covington-Chavez, president of Self-Help Community Development
Corporation, which provided critical financial support and services
throughout the project.  "As a result, the neighborhood has welcomed the
seniors of Maplewood Square, and has enjoyed watching the children of
the West End playing in the City park.  We so appreciate all our
partners in creating this new asset in the heart of the neighborhood."  

 

Permanent financing sources for Maplewood Square include the N.C.
Housing Finance Agency ($545,799), Duke University ($500,000), City of
Durham ($300,000), and Fifth Third Bank syndicated by National Equity
Fund, Inc. ($2,615,772) from the sale of federal housing tax credits.  

 

Support for Maplewood Park was contributed by Blue Cross Blue Shield,
City of Durham, Duke Chapel, Duke United Way, Duke University, Harry L.
and Helen M. Rust Charitable Foundation, Lowe's at William Penn Plaza,
Make Kids Smile, Inc., Mary Biddle Duke Foundation, O.C. Mitchell, and
PlayWorld Systems, Inc.

 

###

 

Directions to Maplewood Square:  From N.C. Highway 147, exit at Chapel
Hill Street. Go west about one mile, then turn left onto Chapel Hill
Road. Maplewood Square is just ahead on the right.

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