New senior housing project opens in Elyria

ELYRIA — Seniors will have a new place to live independently without having to leave their community after local leaders and developers cut ribbon to officially open the Foster Senior Lofts apartment building on Wednesday. The long-awaited 46-unit apartment building at 610 Bond St. is open exclusively to residents 55 years or older and is intended to allow residents of Elyria and neighboring cities to downsize but stay close to their homes and families. Built and managed by Huber Heights developer Pivotal Housing Partners, the project was initially brought together by the Elyria Community Partnership nonprofit. Community Partnership Executive Director Mone't Roberts said that the nonprofit identified a need for more senior-specific housing in the city, and then brought in Pivotal as a partner. The partnership also helped secure funding from the city and nonprofit development company Grow America. Roberts said that three residents have already moved in, and Pivotal has a wait list of more than 300 seniors who have applied. She said that the project will put only a small dent in the need for housing in Elyria, but that other projects — like the forthcoming McGregor Landing 115-unit senior apartment near the McGregor PACE senior center — would help fill the gap. "At the ribbon-cutting, we talked about the catalyst that this project has become for Elyria," Roberts said afterward. "It is really the starting of a beautiful new momentum that is happening for housing developments in Elyria. We are excited about the McGregor project that is coming soon and other projects that are happening and being approved. It is truly just an exciting opportunity to see this project come to fruition and see the neighborhood accept it. I think with the 300 applicants, we can definitely identify a need for housing in Elyria." In addition to other similar projects, Pivotal has also floated plans for a second phase of the Foster Lofts project that would build a second senior apartment of similar size on the southern part of the property, which once housed the Thomas Jefferson School. Roberts said that the nonprofit would continue to seek development partners for future housing projects, as well as exploring other ways it could help the city's residents. She said that one upcoming such project will seek to provide money to help residents rehabilitate their homes. That program would be open to all residents, not just seniors, Roberts said. Like Roberts, Elyria Mayor Kevin Brubaker said that the Foster Lofts project was critical in spurring other investment across the city. "This is an $18 million investment in that neighborhood for senior housing, and one of our priorities was expanding senior and affordable housing," Brubaker said. "This is really a catalyst of investment coming into the city as far as housing, and having affordable housing for our seniors and others is very important to our community." Brubaker also was a major proponent of the project because it included the demolition of the former school, which had been an eyesore in the neighborhood for several years. "The neighborhood was very skeptical of this when we first kicked it off," he said. "It took a lot of work from Pivotal, ECP and the city of Elyria to convince people that this was going to be a good project. There were numerous residents in attendance (at the ribbon-cutting) and took the tour, and all of them praised the work. This is not some shoddy building, a lot of care was put into it." Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.