Development Accomplishments

Dave Wright Apartments

Heidelberg, PA

Dave Wright Apartments. Rendering courtesy of Morris Knowles & Associates.

Dave Wright Apartments, located just outside of Pittsburgh, includes 21 units of housing with a preference for adults on the autism spectrum and 21 units for low-income families. RHLS worked with the Autism Housing Development Corporation of Pittsburgh as well as ACTION Housing, Inc. to make this project a reality. It was designed with the sensory processing needs of adults on the autism spectrum in mind. The Dave Wright Apartments are the first in the country to provide housing with specific services to this population.

JBJ Soul Homes

Philadelphia, PA

Project HOME JBJ Soul Homes ©2014 Jay Gorodetzer

Project HOME and RHLS have worked together on over a dozen supportive housing developments in the City of Philadelphia. JBJ Soul Homes provides 55 units of supportive housing to formerly homeless residents, including a number of units set aside for young adults aging out of foster care. Services for young adult residents are provided by Covenant House, an organization with extensive experience in serving this rapidly growing population with specific and intensive needs. The residence was financed in part through the Middleton Partnership, an initiative created by John and Leigh Middleton to create 500 units of housing for formerly homeless persons across the City.

Goodwill at North

Scranton, PA

Goodwill at North in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

North Scranton Junior High School, a majestic building that sits atop a hill in Scranton, laid dormant since 1989. After nearly a decade of battling legal obstacles, financial hurdles, and even a mine below the school, the building now provides 58 apartments to low-income seniors. In 2011, Goodwill of Northeastern PA acquired the building for $1 from Pennrose Development, subject to existing debt from the city of Scranton. Despite years of stalled development, the project received nearly 300 letters of support from the community when applying for tax credit programs with the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency. RHLS attorneys clocked over 1,059 hours to make the project happen. The $24 million project includes a diverse funding portfolio, with financing including Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, Historic Preservation Tax Credits, a Community Development Block Grant,  and funds from the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program.

Paseo Verde

Philadelphia, PA

APM Paseo Verde during construction phase.

RHLS represented the Associacion Puertorriquenos en Marcha on their development, Paseo Verde, in North Philadelphia. Paseo Verde is a 120 unit, mixed-use, mixed-income, and transit oriented development that was the first LEED Platinum development in the western hemisphere.  The development’s innovative design and efficiency brought international attention- the team received awards including the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED for Homes, Project of the Year in  2015; the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, Regional Excellence Award, Regional Land Use Project of the Year in 2013; and the AIA Pennsylvania Award for Architectural Excellence, Citation of Merit in 2012.