GUILDERLAND — A proposal for affordable senior housing in Guilderland has been withdrawn after a somewhat confusing presentation from the project applicant at a recent town board meeting. 

On Aug. 15, the board was due to vote on extending for one year Local Law Number 2 of 2021, which allowed for the construction of 86 affordable senior-housing units at 24 New Karner Road, amid the Albany Pine Bush. 

But board members thought that the applicant was attempting to change the project and sought clarification from Tim Cassidy of Pine Bush Senior Living, LLC as to the exact nature of what he was proposing. Cassidy then said he would pull his application and restart the approval process — this time for “workforce housing.”

Workforce housing is meant to provide affordable homes for people who otherwise couldn’t afford to live near where they work. 

In August 2021, town board members unanimously approved an amendment to a 2017 law that allowed for 96 market-rate senior apartments slated for New Karner Road to instead become 86 units of affordable senior housing: 56 assisted-living units and 40 for memory care. 

The development was to be for people aged 55 or older whose incomes ranged from 30 percent to 90 percent of the area median income, with rents between about $444 to $1,244 per month.

On Tuesday, the town board had a narrow charge: Whether or not to extend the local law allowing the affordable senior housing. But that was first complicated by a letter from Pine Bush Senior Living requesting the extension. 

The letter said in part that Pine Bush Senior Living had “executed an agreement with The NRP Group to purchase the sites referenced above for development of Multi-Family Workforce Housing that is not age restricted subject to receiving approvals from the Town of Guilderland.”

At the meeting, Cassidy launched into an explanation of the twists and turns the project had taken since his group first acquired the 39-acre parcel almost a decade ago. 

He told board members that, after obtaining approvals from various town boards some time in 2016 for senior market-rate housing, he was unable to nail down financing, which led to the 2021 law allowing for affordable senior housing, the thought being it would be easier to find available financing for affordable housing. 

But that turned out not to be the case. 

Pine Bush Senior Living had partnered with affordable-housing developer NRP Group to pursue tax-credit financing for the project but, after applying twice for state funding,had no success. Cassidy said he was told by the upstate administrator of the tax-credit program that he was unlikely to be successful due to the area’s unfavorable Census Tract ranking.

Albany County’s median annual income is almost $74,000, according to the Capital District Regional Planning Commission, while Guilderland’s is $94,500. New York State’s is about $75,000, according to the Census Bureau.

Cassidy on Aug. 15 told the board about senior housing projects he’d been involved with in Denver and Dallas. “It’s active adult, they’re very large apartments, they;re upper-middle-income targeted,” he said. “They have a good amount of common areas and amenities, it’s a very good project.

Board members were still somewhat confused as to what Cassidy was asking for. There was his letter, and he was informing them about projects he had elsewhere in the country, and it seemed like he wanted to change the project use of his Guilderland proposal, but he kept insisting that he only wanted to extend the local law for a year. 

After some more back-and-forth, Cassidy agreed to pull his application, a request the board accepted, and come back with a new proposal.