Developer breaks ground for housing project

City and housing officials Thursday celebrated the groundbreaking of four new homes in the Marketview Heights Focused Investment Strategy area, 104 Weld St.

“As we continue to develop neighborhoods across Rochester, it’s crucial we take care to balance that development evenly between business, market-rate housing and affordable housing,” said R. Carlos Carballada, commissioner of City Neighborhood and Business Development who met at the site with City Council President Lovely Warren; Jean Lowe, president, Greater Rochester Housing Partnership; and Thomas VanNortwick, regional director, New York State Homes and Community Renewal.

“The affordability of these new houses will allow residents a chance to establish themselves financially and bring new energy to Marketview Heights,” Carballada said.

GRHP was awarded a $495,000 grant through the state’s Sustainable Neighborhoods Demonstration Program to support intensive investment in targeted neighborhoods as an effort to stabilize and strengthen that neighborhood.

Each new home will have three bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms and an open first floor plan with a first-floor study. They will be sold to first-time buyers with incomes up to 90 percent of the area median income. The money will also be used to rehabilitate another house in the Marketview Heights FIS area.