The AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust started work on Cherry Street Lofts, a $54.4m residential project in Bridgeport, Conn. The buildings under renovation were constructed in the late 1800s to serve as a factory for the American Gramophone Company. The project will feature 157 apartments, of which 126 will be designated affordable units and made available to residents earning no more than 60 percent of the area median income. The apartments will be built using 100-percent union labor. The development will feature a community facility, a gym and 40,000 sq ft of outdoor recreational space. Completion is set for late 2018.
“We visited the site with the developer early on, about four years ago,” said Andrew Pfeifer, a New York-based AFL-CIO HIT investment officer. “We walked the site and were immediately drawn to the story and the history of the neighborhood. Different efforts to transform this from a blighted block into a community asset had failed for different reasons, but it had remained a priority for the city . . . We saw it would be a challenge. But we like challenges and recognized its potential to become a catalytic redevelopment.”
