Courthouse Square Troubles

continued

The tax credits First Centrum used to renovate the building required the company to own it for fifteen years. That period will be up next year. But even then, it's not clear that any private company will want it. Under the terms of the original deal, the building must continue to be used as low-income housing for at least another fifteen years after 2010--and it's almost certainly losing money. The eleven empty apartments translate into an almost 10 percent vacancy rate. Ex-mayor Sheldon says that in her experience, a building catering to moderate- and low-income clients needs to maintain a 97 percent occupancy rate to be profitable.

That leaves a nonprofit as the most likely purchaser. Michael Appel, executive director of Avalon Housing, acknowledges he's had discussions with "concerned citizens" about the possibility of Avalon getting involved. But while Avalon has a good reputation as a manager of smaller projects, that prospect does not sit well with some residents, who, unfairly or not, associate the nonprofit with a troubled population. "If Avalon runs this, I'm moving," says one.

Like Ruth Darcy, others are determined to tough it out. "I'm eighty-one, and I don't plan to go anywhere," says one of the widows, firmly. A few people in the building are in their nineties, she adds, and the idea of moving traumatizes them.