Friday, October 31, 2008
No Lease for Outreach Center in New Gates Community Center
At the grand opening of the new Gates of Ballston Community Center on Saturday, Arlington County Board Vice Chair Barbara Favola said, “The county is the proud sponsor of most of the programs in this building.”
That is almost true, but not quite yet.
The county sponsors the Buckingham Community Outreach center which has space in two conjoined apartments at the Gates of Ballston. But the county and AHC, Inc., the affordable housing developer which owns the property, have yet to sign a lease that would move the program onto the second floor of the new Gates of Ballston Community Center, where empty offices await.
Price is the problem, officials have said, though people on both sides were not overly dismayed by the delay.
“It’s taking more time than we thought it would,” said Catherine Bucknam, an AHC spokesperson, adding, “We want them [the Buckingham Outreach Center] there…It’s important to provide those services. That’s what a community center is all about.”
For his part, David Cristeal, in the county’s housing division, said "I think we were expecting to have [a lease] but we didn't, so we're working through it."
"I don't think the amount of space is at issue, it's just how much for that space," he said.
Ms. Bucknam added that AHC wants all outside organizations to have a lease for the space they use. The Child and Family Networks Center, which is running a day care facility on the second floor of the community center building, has a lease, she said.
For the past several years, the county has run the Buckingham Outreach Center from various apartments on the property; currently it is on 4th Street across the parking lot from the new building.
The outreach center offers computer classes, career counseling, English as a Second Language classes, and conducts other social work activities.
Although Ms. Bucknam was sure that the county was paying something for the use of the property, she was not sure how much, or if there was a formal lease anymore.
The Community Center building houses a day care center, management offices for the Gates of Ballston, and an office for the tenants association. As well, it has a community room for gatherings and other amenities.
No word as to how much longer it might take to ink the lease.
Related stories…
Labels: affordable housing, ahc, gates of ballston
Monday, October 27, 2008
Gates Center Opens with Fanfare
The ceremony had all the action befitting a grand opening of a new building—a standing-room-only crowd of hundreds, cotton-candy, popcorn, foosball, a tent with hot dogs, burgers and enchiladas, and music—and, of course, it had speeches from county luminaries.
The Buckingham community gathered Saturday to celebrate the opening of the new Gates of Ballston Community Center at 4108 N. 4th St.
“The biggest statement that this facility makes is the statement about our values,” said Barbara Favola, the vice chair of the Arlington County board. She said she came on behalf of her board colleague, Chairman Walter Tejada, a well-known politician in the Buckingham neighborhood.
Ms. Favola said the center is a concerted effort on the part of the county to put services into the neighborhoods where the services are needed. This was the one line in all the speeches that drew applause without it being asked for.
“The county is the proud sponsor of most of the programming in this building,” she said. The county also helped finance the building with an $8.5 million loan to AHC, Inc., the owner and developer of the property. The building was part of the $108 million renovation of the Gates of Ballston property. The project funding came from numerous corporate and affordable housing partners.
And the community center is designed for community service, with a large, colorful party room on the main floor, offices for AHC Management, offices for BU-GATA (the tenants association), child care upstairs, and space for the Buckingham Community Outreach Center which provides computer access, career training, English classes and other services to the largely Spanish-speaking community.
The outreach center has spent its entire life in various apartments all over the Gates’ property, most recently in conjoined two bedroom apartments in a nearby building.
The county and AHC, Inc. have not finalized the outreach center contract for the space on the second floor, county staff and others have said. Those rooms on the second floor are still vacant.
The community room with its orange accent walls, multi-colored curtains, blue counter top in the kitchen area, and a purple fireplace mantel was the centerpiece of the day.
The interior designer, Diana Lamb, called the room “bright,” “cheerful,” and “fun.”
“It was a low-budget job that, with creativity, they got a bang for their buck,” Ms. Lamb said. She said they did not have a lot of money for furniture and paint, but “I don’t think it looks that way.”
In fact, AHC President and CEO Walter Webdale said the teens loved what they saw. “They actually hugged the furniture,” he said, before pausing for effect then adding that he did not know why they would hug the chairs, but they did.
Also on hand for the day were Ron Carlee, the Arlington County manager, Rick Leeds, the president of AHC Management, Patrick Hope, the president of the Buckingham Community Civic Association, Lois Athey, an activist with BU-GATA, and Connie Freeman, the director of the Buckingham Community Outreach Center.
The event ran despite the rains on Saturday from noon to 4p.m.
Related stories…
Labels: ahc, buckingham outreach center, renovation
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
HeraldTrib Today: June 11, 2008
I was in a hurry last week to get my post finished and head off on hiatus. That’s when I inadvertently opened a can of worms.
My intention was to let readers know that the Gates of Ballston, owned by AHC, Inc., planned to open their new community center this summer, and that I would be writing a story about it in the fall when I return from hiatus.
A month or more ago, I had spoken to some people at the current Buckingham Community Outreach Center housed in two connected apartments at the Gates. They were concerned about the move into the new space.
I should have stopped there. Instead I wrote more detail, saying that the community outreach program was going to lose about 1,500 square feet in the move.
I was wrong.
Although Connie Freeman (I called her “Connie Sherman” last week—a bad week), as the director of the community outreach center, is concerned about changes in space and use of the space, she cannot remember ever talking to me about square footage. I was running off memory, rather than notes.
I’ll admit it was unprofessional. I may be a blog, but I do have standards that I attempt to maintain.
So I’m going to apologize for that stupidity, and then move on.
This is the plan for my coverage of the center:
1: I posted the letter from AHC, Inc., below. It is their response to my column last week.
2: Over the summer, I will find some time to run back through all my notes on this—both the notes from people in the Buckingham Community Outreach Center and the people, including Catherine Bucknam from AHC Inc., who gave me a tour of the facility last February.
3: I will be back in the fall to talk to AHC, Connie Freeman, Catherine Bucknam and others to find out how the new space is working. I will write more then.
AHC Inc., the largest nonprofit developer and owner of affordable housing in Northern Virginia, has won the 2008 "Best Project Virginia" award for the Gates of Ballston, a 464-unit affordable apartment complex in Arlington, VA, that was built in the late 1930s. The award, presented by the Housing Association of Nonprofit Developers (HAND), was announced at HAND's annual meeting in early June, a press release from AHC, Inc. said.
All week I knew I would have to run my apology and the letter from AHC, Inc., so I thought I would look to a little more news. Check out the stories below.
One of them mentions a sewage spill on June 4 affecting Lubber Run. The water is now clean, said the county’s Shannon Whalen McDaniel, since the rain flushed it out.
The press release told people and animals to stay out of the water until further notice. I saw only one yellowish flyer on a post at one Lubber Run entrance.
I very well could have missed others at the entrances, but I can’t help but think a couple notices nearer the water would have helped in this case. Flyers on bridge railings and that sort of thing might have garnered more attention.
Still, it’s clean now, so consider this “further notice.”
I updated the photos--got the scanner working--on the N. Glebe Road at N. Pershing Drive intersection below. I updated the post with a new helpful illustration; the story itself is the same.
Look for me at Steve Songs (Lubber Run Amphitheatre this SATURDAY--I wrote the wrong day when I first posted).
See you in the fall…
The Week’s Headlines…
As always, you can scroll down to see all the recent stories, or simply click the links below (if the link doesn't work, scroll down to find the story, and email to tell me what's busted: heraldtrib@gmail.com --Steve Thurston).
Today's Headlines:
Headlines from Earlier in the Week:
Labels: ahc, buckingham outreach center, gates of ballston, lubber run center
Friday, May 02, 2008
Leadership Training Visits Bham
Members of Leadership Arlington, a training and networking program, visited Buckingham on Thursday, May 1, as part of a lesson on consensus building.
They were scouting locations for a ficticious affordable housing complex to be built somewhere in the county. The rest of the Leadership Arlington class of 2008 visited other neighborhoods, and later in the day they got together to come to a consensus on which location to choose.
The group met for a free lunch at Tuto Bene on N. Glebe Road and then went on a walking tour of the neighborhood including a stop in a Gates of Ballston apartment.
Jennifer Endo, of AHC, Inc., which owns the Gates, and I took part in the free lunch. We met with Ubaldo Sanchez, an artist who lives in Buckingham Villages Apartments, and Connie Freeman of the Buckingham Community Outreach Center along the way.
According to Suzanne Grant, a participant who helped organize the day, ultimately, two groups in Leadership Arlington chose the Columbia Heights West neighborhood for the housing complex, and three groups had Buckingham in the running. Ultimately, they could not get a consensus, Ms. Grant said in a subsequent interview.
"The purpose was to experience the process of consensus building," she said, adding, "and how unrealistic it would be to do something like this in one day."
According to their web site, "Leadership Arlington is a 10-month, tuition-based program that provides a forum for the business, nonprofit and public sectors to discuss the issues and opportunities facing Arlington, Virginia while enhancing personal and professional leadership skills."
Related sites…
Labels: ahc, arlington, BV1, BV3, leadership, tour
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Letter: Revised GLUP Bad for Buckingham
To read county's press release on this, click here. To read a Sun Gazette article, click here. --ST
Steve -
I wasn't sure if you were following this development or not. The Buckingham Community Civic Association had opposed any change to the GLUP out of concern that continued development creeping along N. Glebe Road would come into our neighborhood. It's just a matter of time for the Macy's parking lot, Exxon, and Goodyear to be up for development and it's something we should be watching. (We all know plans are in the works for Glebe and Pershing and we'll be talking to the developer at the March 17 BCCA meeting).
Another interest of the BCCA is the increased traffic likely to result from approval of this development. Bluemont Civic Association was so concerned that they were able to convince the developer to put in $125,000 for traffic calming to mitigate any effects of the project. Bluemont was shrewd in earmarking these funds to be spent exclusively within the boundaries of Bluemont CA.
The BCCA requested that these funds be spent proportionally to those neighborhoods impacted by increased traffic as a result of the project. As a matter of policy, we believe that the funds should go toward those areas effected by an increase in traffic and not by an arbitrary drawing of neighborhood lines. It shouldn't matter where the project is built; only where the impact is felt. The County Board debated this point for a lengthy period but did not agree.
In fact, it was agreed that because Buckingham is so far away, we wouldn't feel any impact. What? We are only 2 blocks away! Workers and residents will be cutting through Buckingham to get to Arlington Boulevard or coming up Carlin Springs to go to and from [the development].
This feels a little like a "giveaway" to Bluemont to get their support. It's bad policy to earmark funds for one neighborhood without understanding the true implications for others. We'll be watching this matter closely...
Pat Hope
The writer is the president of the Buckingham Community Civic Association.
Labels: ahc, bob peck, redevelopment
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
HeraldTrib Today: Feb. 6, 2008
One of the stories in the hopper, of course, will deal with results of the survey—67 of you logged on to give your opinion (I am quite happy with that number). The survey has been closed.
I will have something on that either tomorrow or Friday, so check back; it will probably be the first in a series of articles, so keep checking.
Also, the survey has been translated to Spanish; now I just am waiting for my friend Sarah Zoeller to translate an introduction to the survey, then I can send it out to the Spanish-speaking community. (Big shout out of thanks to Sarah who does this for me, for no pay, while watching her infant! You go girl!)
I can tell you that “Arlington County Police substation” was the biggest winner in the question of which county office should be in Buckingham. We used to have a substation in a Gates of Ballston second floor apartment, and AHC Inc., the owner/manager of The Gates, tells me they are looking again to house a substation. “We would very much like to have a police substation again on the property, but we’re not in a position to offer them an apartment; we need to keep those units rented. However, we’re looking to identify another space that would be appropriate for their substation,” said Catherine Bucknam, an AHC spokesperson, in a voice mail. “It’s in the works.” Officer Timothy Koch said in a recent Buckingham Community Civic Association meeting that the main concern is that the office be fully secured when police are not there. He said computers and files have classified information that must be protected. When that Gates of Ballston apartment complex was emptied for renovation more than a year ago, the sub-station was lost. Police officers have said at civic association meetings and elsewhere how much they liked that substation. They liked having quick access to people in the community. In an interview last fall, Ofr. Michael Lutz said that on occasion they even got anonymous notes, in Spanish, about crimes that had been committed. He admitted that the officers needed the notes translated, but he was happy that someone trusted them enough to tell them what was going on. That contact has been lost without the substation, he said. A police substation in the community meant that the officers could hang out, see and be seen. Plus, it was nice to have a place outside the main headquarters where officers could take a break without the bosses right over their shoulders, admitted Ofr. Koch at the BCCA meeting. He told stories of watching, lights off, from the upper floor window as people conducted illegal activity in the alleys around the apartment. The police were on the people before they could run, Ofr. Koch said.
Ms. Bucknam also confirmed a topic that came up during last week’s Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board meeting. Officials for Georgetown Strategic Capital, a developer that is planning to renovate the intersection of N. Glebe Road at N. Pershing Drive (see the related story here), said they were in negotiations with AHC, Inc. regarding the parking lot north of what is now the Glebe Market.
In design drawings, a new building, larger than the Glebe Market building, would have a parking lot entrance on Glebe Road. Most of the parking would run along the north side of the building and into the covered area in the middle of the multi-storied building. To add more street-level parking, the developer is asking AHC to grant an easement that would take some space from a back courtyard on AHC’s Gates of Ballston Property. “We have been in discussions with them,” Ms. Bucknam said in the same voice mail as earlier. “Nothing has been decided about an easement. It’s our understanding that their primary interest is to create an entrance and exit that his off Glebe Road." She said AHC is waiting to see more definite plans. Today's Headlines: Letters from Earlier in the Week: Headlines from Earlier in the Week: Labels: ahc, georgetown strategic, Glebe, pershing, Police
The Week’s Headlines…
As always, you can scroll down to see all the recent stories, or simply click the links below (if the link doesn't work, scroll down to find the story, and email to tell me what's busted: heraldtrib@gmail.com --Steve Thurston).
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Letter, McDonalds
To the editor:
John Reeder raises some interesting points about affordable housing in his email to the Arlington New Directions, which was reprinted in the Buckingham Herald Tribblog yesterday. [Scroll down to the June 20 post: "Sham Deal: Bham Unaffordable"--Steve] I would like to make one correction: AHC, a developer and owner of affordable housing in Arlington for more than 30 years, is not a partner with Paradigm in the Buckingham project. We own the Gates of Ballston, a 464-unit rental property, which is next door to the Buckingham development. The Gates is currently undergoing a major renovation which will be completed later this fall. When the renovation is finished, 348 of the apartments will be affordable to families earning 60% or less of the area median income ($56,700 for a family of four). AHC is doing what it can to increase the supply of affordable housing (see our website for new projects at www.ahcinc.org) and we are open to new ideas that will preserve affordable housing in Arlington. Walter D. Webdale ++++++++++
President and CEO
AHC Inc.
McDonald’s Drops Request to Supersize Their Signage
The McDonald’s at the corner of N. Glebe Road and Arlington Boulevard has dropped a request to supersize the total square-footage of its signs, the county said. The restaurant, under current county regulations can have about 270 square feet of signs, and they were asking for more than 300 square feet as part of an image and marketing change, county records show. The decision should have been made at the June county board meeting, but had been withdrawn. They will make changes within current standards, county staff said.
Labels: affordable housing, ahc, Buckingham, mcdonalds, paradigm, signs
Monday, June 11, 2007
Bham Villages to Begin Relocation
Eighty-four households in Buckingham Village Apartments are facing relocation before the year’s end as Paradigm Development Company works to implement the redevelopment plan OKed by the Arlington County Board in a five-to-nothing vote on Saturday.
Paradigm plans to open their relocation office next Monday to begin helping families and individuals, said Micheline Castan-Smith, Paradigm’s project manager.
“Phase One” of the redevelopment includes razing the buildings along N. Pershing Drive west of N. George Mason Drive. Obviously, that cannot happen until the apartments are emptied, Ms. Castan-Smith said in an interview. Relocating the families will take until late November or early December, she estimated.
Paradigm is enlisting the help of AHC Inc., an affordable housing company based in Arlington. AHC owns and manages the Gates of Ballston in the Buckingham neighborhood and 18 other properties in Arlington. [For more on AHC, see the June 2 post, below.] Ms. Castan-Smith said other companies will be involved with the relocation.
As I wrote in the Feb. 28 post, eight buildings, between Culpepper Garden Apartments and N. George Mason Drive will be destroyed to make room for construction of “Building A,” a four-storey, 234-unit apartment building with pitched roof, a cupola atop, and a parking garage underground. The building will be a mix of market rate and affordable housing.
This is the facade of "Building A" on the side facing the "Common Green." (All images here were developed by Paradigm and are taken from plans shown at various Site Plan Review Committee meetings over the last 10 months.)
The plan for the property, “Scenario 8,” was the product of months of discussions between county staff, Paradigm, and residents throughout Arlington.
Village 1 in Scenario 8 includes two large apartment buildings, a "Common Green" between them, and rows of townhouses along N. George Mason Drive.
The affordable housing, open space and streets will cost the county about $49 million. What does this buy the county?
As reported in the Dec. 3 post (click the link then scroll down to “Village 3 Co-op-eration” under the Dec. 3 post), Village 3, on N. Pershing Drive just east of N. George Mason Drive, will be sold to the county and turned into a condominium or Co-operative. The details there are still to be worked out. The county cannot buy the property itself, but must work with another company to do so. They have two years to find the company to help them buy, said JoAnn Cubbage, the chief of the county’s Housing Services Sector. Purchasing Village 3, reported March 21, will be about $32 million, plus interest of up to $4 million.
The county will pay $14.8 million for the land on Village 1 to make street extensions of N. 3rd Street and N. 4th Road as well as a community open space just smaller than a football field on the extended N. 4th Street, David Cristeal in the county’s Housing Division said in an interview. Another $1.5 to $2 million will cover the cost of developing that space into a park.
The "Common Green" will be a public park in Village 1, including, (from left to right), a tot lot, gazebo, sculpture (or something similar), and flags.
Finally on the capital side, the county is loaning $7 million from the Affordable Housing Investment Fund and the Housing Reserve Fund to help Paradigm build 100 affordable apartments in the new buildings. That money will be paid back with interest, 3.5 percent, once the project is “stabilized,” Mr. Cristeal said, meaning that the building has been built and the units have been rented. That might take as much as five years, he said.
A couple hundred thousand more will be spent helping with tenant relocation and other assistance, Mr. Cristeal said.
In all, 300 units of affordable housing will be saved. All 140 units of Village 3 will remain and will be sold at below-market rates. (Some plans even call for adding units in basements and in other spaces.) One hundred units in the two new buildings will be affordable at the 60 percent of the Area Median Income, which will qualify Paradigm to receive tax credits on those units.
The final 60 units will be found somewhere in Buckingham. These units will be affordable at the 80 percent of AMI. Many households make more than the 60 percent AMI to qualify for the lowest-rent units, but they do not make enough to rent apartments at the market rate. This attempts to fill the gap, people involved in the negotiations have said.
“It’s an effort to assist those people. If they wanted to stay in the neighborhood, they could,” Ms. Cubbage said.
Where these units will come from has not been planned completely. Most likely they will either be found in the new buildings or taken from the market-rate units in Historic Ballston Park, Ms. Cubbage said.
Labels: affordable housing, ahc, Buckingham, buckingham villages, county board, financing
