Former baseball star Mo Vaughn rehabbing NY apartments
- <!– AddThis Button END –> A pair of New York cheap apartment complexes have been purchased and tabbed for renovation by an investment group led by former major league slugger Mo Vaughn.
Vaughn’s real estate development firm, Omni New York, bought two adjacent Bronx complexes, the 275-unit Twin Parks and the 249-unit Grote Street Apartments, according to Crain’s New York Business. Both apartments were built in the 1970s and are located across from the Bronx Zoo. They have been a part of the Mitchell-Lama affordable housing program, said the report, and have fallen into a state of disrepair. Vaughn’s company specializes in purchasing run-down complexes and rehabilitating them.
Mitchell-Lama was a program put into place in 1955 by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation & Development and oversees 44,600 affordable housing units across the city.
“We’ve known about these complexes for a couple years,” Eugene Schneur, a partner with Omni, told the news source. “They are old buildings in bad shape and need work.”
Though the terms of the estate sale were not disclosed, Crain’s reported that Omni will sink $15 million into renovating the buildings, converting their energy sources from gas to electric and replacing elevators in the lobby and common areas. Schneur told the site that the renovations will make the buildings more energy-efficient and will make the affordable apartments for habitable for tenants.
Omni has also purchased the Good Neighbor complex in Harlem and a 14-building, 416-apartment community in South Bronx, said the paper.
Vaughn and Schneur founded Omni in the middle part of the past decade with an eye toward acquiring and refurbishing affordable apartments across the country, making them more energy-efficient and suitable for tenants. The effort has worked on at least 3,462 New York cheap apartments since 2004, though it has also made strides in other states. Omni has purchased projects in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Miami and Las Vegas. Last year, the company bought a 168-unit complex in Lawrence, Massachusetts, reported the Eagle-Tribune.
It was in the Bay State that Vaughn enjoyed his greatest success in baseball. The slugger played first base for the Boston Red Sox for eight years, winning the league’s Most Valuable Player award in 1995. He also spent time with the Anaheim Angels and New York Mets before retiring in 2003.
“When I got out of the game, I wanted to do something impactful,” Vaughn told the Eagle-Tribune in 2009. “Affordable housing is a very big need, not only in the New York area, the Boston area, but nationally.”
About the Author
Jim Sarone is a writer for My Cheap Apartments specializing in cheap apartmentsand the affordable housingmarkets.
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