By James Cullum
alexandrianews.org
Today, public housing residents and new home owners received ceremonial keys to their new homes to celebrate the completion of Alexandria Crossing. The new community on West Glebe Road and Old Dominion Boulevard, which is a partnership between Eakin Yongentob Associates and the the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority is a blend of market rate townhomes, workforce homes, and public housing. It is EYA’s ninth new home community in Alexandria and their second partnership with ARHA.
Homeowners Mei Ching Delaquis, Alexandria Police Officer Carl Wortham and Pamela Reynolds received ceremonial keys to commemorate their move into the community. (Photo: James Cullum)
Homeowner Mei Ching Delauis moved from Old Town. “I’m very excited,” she said. “This is a beautiful community. Thank you so much.”
Alexandria Mayor Bill Euille spoke about City’s affordable housing shortage in his praise of the Glebe Park project. “This is a wonderful day for us in Alexandria,” Euille said. “This trio team of ARHA, EYA and the City of Alexandria just continues to amaze me in terms of all of the wonderful things we’re doing together to transition lives of people in Alexandria, not only to provide home ownership opportunities for them but to also provide workforce housing and affordable housing for those in need. And certainly we know we have an affordable and workforce housing shortage in the City.”
The project involved the demolition of the out-of-date public housing rental apartments in the 800-block of West Glebe Road and replaced those units with 48 new apartment homes. Near the 3900-block of Old Dominion Boulevard, two apartment buildings were rehabilitated and a new apartment building and 18 for-sale homes were constructed. Ten of the for-sale homes are set aside for workforce families.
Brian Jackson is a vice president for EYA. “This is really a celebration for all of us to show off the handiwork, the finished products that we’ve worked on,” he said. “We started in July of 2006, which was when we first responded to ARHA’s RFP [Request For Proposal], and here we are in July, 2010, turning over the units, repaying the City loan and opening this exciting mixed-income community in what was Glebe Park at Alexandria Crossing.”
Roy Priest ARHA’s executive director. “This is just the beginning here, another step in the process of redevelopment. I’m excited about this for our residents and the owners,” he said.
Alexandria Police Officer Carl Wortham will live rent-free in a two-level townhouse in the project, but will always be on-call. “It’s truly a blessing. I’ll probably be here for two years, possibly more. It’s very nice not to be paying a mortgage,” he said. “I look forward to the opportunity to work with people around here and make this community a better place. I’m also in charge of the bicycle patrol, which is a full-time job in itself. But my number one goal is going to be maintaining this neighborhood and making it a good place for people to live.”