National Church Residences will host a ribbon cutting for its new $7 million affordable senior housing community. It occurs 11 a.m., Wednesday, Oct. 2 at 353 Broadway Ave. on Youngstown’s North Side.
The three-story structure has 57 one-bedroom and three two-bedroom apartments. It will serve seniors 55 and older.
Broadway Park includes many features for seniors, including a community room for hosting resident events; a wellness center; fitness room, a business center with computers; community garden and park; an outdoor patio off the back of the community room; free campus Wi-Fi; and a partnership with Ohio Living Park Vista for services including the Mahoning Valley Learning Institute, health education and wellness programs.
“This project was made possible by a shared vision with Ohio Living,” said Amy Rosenthal, director of affordable housing development at National Church Residences. “Ohio Living brought us the land redevelopment opportunity and provided introductions to the city leaders and area stakeholders, all of which were instrumental in moving this project forward.”
In addition, the AARP Foundation is working with National Church Residences to launch a campus-wide, voice-activated technology pilot program which will leverage the free campus Wi-Fi amenity.
The service utilizes a small table-top speaker called the Dot, which grants the user hands-free, voice-activated contact through Alexa, an intelligent personal assistant developed by Amazon. The Dots will be distributed to residents on Oct. 3, and training will follow. The Innovation Team at National Church Residences will monitor and evaluate how the service is used and identify ways to drive resident engagement before expanding it to other campuses.
Broadway Park is a key component of the Youngstown 2010 Comprehensive Plan and the Arlington Heights Acquisition Strategy revitalization plan. The project redevelops vacant and underused land into new affordable housing units for Youngstown’s growing senior population.
Nathaniel Pinkard, Youngstown City Council, and Sharon Woodberry, director of development for the City of Youngstown, were important contributors to the success of this project and both will participate in the celebration ceremony.
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