New Affordable Senior Community Welcomes Residents in Youngstown

National Church Residences is cutting the ribbon on a new $7 million affordable senior housing community in Youngstown, Ohio. The three-story structure with 57 one-bedroom and three two-bedroom apartments will serve seniors 55 and older. The public celebration will take place on Wednesday, October 2, at 11 a.m. at 353 Broadway Avenue.

Broadway Park includes many features for seniors, including: a community room for hosting resident events, a wellness center, fitness room, a business center with computers, community garden and park, an outdoor patio off the back of the community room, free campus Wi-Fi, and a partnership with Ohio Living Park Vista for services including the Mahoning Valley Learning Institute, health education and wellness programs.

“This project was made possible by a shared vision with Ohio Living,” said Amy Rosenthal, director of affordable housing development at National Church Residences. “Ohio Living brought us the land redevelopment opportunity and provided introductions to the city leaders and area stakeholders, all of which were instrumental in moving this project forward.”

In addition, the AARP Foundation is working with National Church Residences to launch a campus-wide, voice-activated technology pilot program which will leverage the free campus Wi-Fi amenity provided. The service utilizes a small table-top speaker called the Dot, which grants the user hands-free, voice-activated contact through Alexa, an intelligent personal assistant developed by Amazon. The Dots will be distributed to residents at 3 p.m., Thursday, October 3, and training will follow. The Innovation Team at National Church Residences will monitor and evaluate how the service is used and identify ways to drive resident engagement before expanding it to other campuses.

Broadway Park is a key component of the Youngstown 2010 Comprehensive Plan and the Arlington Heights Acquisition Strategy revitalization plan. The project redevelops vacant and underused land into new affordable housing units for Youngstown’s growing senior population. Nathaniel Pinkard, Youngstown City Council, and Sharon Woodberry, director of development for the City of Youngstown, were important contributors to the success of this project and both will participate in the celebration ceremony.

National Church Residences would like to recognize and thank the partners who made this project possible. Financial partners: KeyBank is the equity provider and construction lender, the Ohio Housing Finance Agency provided a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit award, HOME funds provided by the City of Youngstown, as well as the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati. We also want to recognize our development partners for their commitment to providing affordable housing to seniors in this area: the John G. Johnson Construction Company and Berardi Partners.

With the completion of Broadway Park, National Church Residences has more than 1,300 units of senior housing spread across 17 communities in northeast Ohio.

About National Church Residences
National Church Residences serves more than 42,000 seniors through its array of housing and health care services. The not-for-profit organization is driven by a vision of advancing better living for all seniors, enabling them to remain home for life. With 340 communities in 25 states, it is the nation’s largest not-for-profit provider of affordable senior housing and the largest manager of service coordinators. The organization also offers residential senior communities, home and community-based services, as well as permanent supportive housing for the formerly homeless and disabled. For more information, visit us at NationalChurchResidences.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.