EYA Serves Up Old Town Commons

This weekend, EYA will begin sales on its Old Town Commons project in Alexandria. A grand opening Saturday May 15th will be promptly followed by the beginning of sales contracts (it is hoped) on Sunday, May 16th, when EYA will release a limited number of new homes. Old Town Commons will add 245 market-rate and 134 affordable homes, renovating five full blocks of Old Town.

The new development replaces 194 units of affordable housing built in 1954 and owned by the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority (ARHA). Current residents will be relocated on site or transferred to other available ARHA housing in the community. The developer began the process in 2006 when it responded to city-issued RFP, which it won in the summer of 2006. As part of the agreement, the developer will buy the land beneath the market-rate units, money which ARHA will then put toward funding the public housing units. The public housing will also be funded through low-income housing tax credits.

The homes will be a mixture of architectural styles, designed by project architect the Lessard Group. Across the five phases, the housing breaks down into 159 market-rate townhouses, 86 market-rate condos and 134 subsidized apartments. The first phase includes 38 market-rate units and 18 subsidized units with the remaining phases following a similar pattern of two-thirds market-rate to one-third subsidized. The first phase of homes should complete by the end of 2012, according to EYA Vice President, Jack Lester.

The development team will hold a ceremonial groundbreaking on May 26th which Lester described as an event directed towards the neighbors and future residents of the public housing element of the project "to celebrate the beginning of construction."

Alexandria, Virginia real estate development news