McGregor Landing affordable senior apartment breaks ground in Elyria

ELYRIA — Affordable housing options for seniors in the city continue to grow, as the McGregor Foundation and CHN Housing Partners broke ground on their new 115-unit apartment building on Wednesday. McGregor Landing, as the project is called, will be an independent living facility available only to people age 55 and older who are considered low to moderate income. The project will be built on Midway Boulevard/50th Street directly behind the existing McGregor PACE senior care facility, which provides social and medical services to seniors from across the county. "Today is more than turning soil, it's about planning a vision," McGregor Foundation CEO and President Ann Conn said. "One rooted in dignity, independence, access and the opportunity for older adults in Lorain County. McGregor Landing represents so much more than just a house (or) an apartment. It represents the next step in McGregor's longstanding commitment to helping older adults live with purpose, security and connection." The three-story, 95,000-square-foot apartment building is expected to cost about $36 million. Conn said that the existing PACE, or Program for All-inclusive Care for the Elderly, center would work in concert with the new apartment building to allow seniors in Lorain County to remain in their communities and close to their families as they age. "This connection is what makes this project so powerful," Conn said. "Housing and healthcare will not stand apart, it will stand together. They will work to support older adults in living well, remaining independent and staying connected to the community they call home." CHN, a nonprofit housing developer, and McGregor have worked together on affordable housing in the past, and the company has already carried out multiple projects in Lorain County. CEO Kevin Nowak said that the nonprofit already manages about 270 units of affordable housing in Elyria, Lorain, North Ridgeville and Carlisle Township. The company broke ground on Broadway Commons, a 62-unit affordable housing project, in Lorain in June. "As Ann has said, affordable housing is not easy," Nowak said. "The only way that you can get it done is when you engage with partners, and this really is kind of — when we think about this development today — there is no greater example of that." Nowak thanked Elyria and the Lorain County commissioners for their support of the project as well as the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, which is providing a 4 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credit to help fund the project. He said that state Rep. Gayle Manning, R-Avon, provided critical support to that tax credit. "We've said a lot of thank yous today, but I think we need to thank all of you, because if you are here, you care about seniors and you care about housing and you know how important a project like this is," Manning said. To obtain that tax credit, units will be available only to seniors making at or below 60 percent of the area median income, or AMI. As of 2024, 60 percent of the area median income for the area including Lorain County was $40,860 for one person. "We are the state agency that is responsible for funding affordable housing throughout the state of Ohio," Housing Financing Agency legislative liaison Grant Miller said. "One of those specific or unique challenges is affordable housing for our seniors and older Ohioans, and that is no easy task. So I want to thank McGregor and CHN Housing Partners for taking on that responsibility and that challenge to invest in their community and create (115 units) here in Lorain County, that is a life-changing amount of affordable housing." McGregor Landing follows an earlier affordable senior housing project in Elyria's 2nd Ward, the Foster Lofts independent housing development that opened in May. Councilwoman Brenda Davis, D-2nd Ward, said she was thrilled to bring more affordable senior housing to the area that she represents. "Seniors are really my project that I ran on," Davis said. "To have another project of affordable — I put a lot of emphasis on that, affordable — senior living space coming into the 2nd Ward is incredible. I am so glad to once again be welcoming a project like this into my ward." Elyria Mayor Kevin Brubaker said that in addition to bringing much-needed senior and affordable housing into the city, he thought that the groundbreaking served as another sign of recovery and redevelopment in the area around Midway Mall. "We have Foster Lofts that just recently opened and in a little over a year or so we are going to have McGregor Landing open, but we are grateful for this investment," Brubaker said. "And I will tell you, with what is going on around here and the mall, these two (McGregor) buildings are two huge pieces to the redevelopment of the mall area." Brubaker also referenced another forthcoming affordable housing project in the area, the 122-unit Black River Forge affordable housing project on Griswold Road. That project will have one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and will also be supported by the low-income housing tax credit. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.