Anchorage, AK – June 30, 2009 – (RealEstateRama) — Tuesday, June 30, 2009 –The non-profit Retirement Community of Fairbanks last week secured the final piece of the $5 million needed to accomplish the first phase of its goal to offer safe, quality and accessible housing for Fairbanks area seniors. The organization received approval from the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation’s board of directors for $2.2 million in loans to develop a 20-unit, elderly multi-family apartment building to be named Raven Landing Apartments.
An additional $2.2 million was approved from AHFC’s Senior Citizen Housing Development Fund grant program, along with $350,000 from the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Fund. The developer, Weeks Field Development, is deferring $230,000 of its fee.
Raven Landing Apartments will be located at the intersection of Kellum and McGowan streets, just north of Airport Way and Cowles Street between the university and airport. The site currently is vacant in the northeast corner of the Weeks Field low- to moderate-income family housing re-development project, known for decades as Fairview Manor.
The senior facility with consist of 10 one-bedroom and 10 two-bedroom apartments. All units will be fully accessible and ADA compliant, including visual and audio enhancements. The building will have extensive common areas with lounges and reading rooms and a large meeting room. Ten detached heated garages are also planned. In future phases of development, Raven Landing is expected to grow with another 70 units of apartments and condominiums.
According to Dan Fauske, the executive director of AHFC, the goal is to provide residential facilities in Fairbanks that are specifically designed to meet the physical, emotional, recreational, social, financial and similar needs of seniors within the greater Fairbanks community. Up until now, Fairbanks seniors have not had such an option.
Fauske echoed Karen Parr, the director of the Retirement Community of Fairbanks, who told AHFC board members that many Fairbanks seniors have had to leave their friends and neighbors and move out of state for adequate housing opportunities. Fauske said, “Raven Landing will give these valuable senior members of the community an option to stay home.”
AHFC is a self-supporting public corporation with offices in 16 communities statewide. It provides statewide financing for multi-family complexes, congregate facilities, and single-family homes, with special loan options for low-and moderate-income borrowers, veterans, teachers, health care professionals, and those living in rural areas of the state.
AHFC also provides energy and weatherization programs, low-income rental assistance in 17 communities, and special programs for the homeless and those seeking to become self-sufficient. AHFC contributes more than $100 million annually to Alaska’s state budget revenues through cash transfers, capital projects and debt-service payments.
####
For more information, contact: Sherrie Simmonds, Corporate Communications Officer, 907 330 8447, ssimmond (at) ahfc.state.ak (dot) us
