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Former Longhill Street apartment complex reopens

Date: 8/4/2010

Aug. 4, 2010

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

SPRINGFIELD -- A once controversial housing project officially opened last week and already is almost completely occupied.

City officials and members of WinnDevelopment marked the opening of the Longhill Street apartment complex, now known as Forest Park Apartments, with a ribbon cutting on July 28.

Gilbert Winn, the managing principal of the company, said the project began in May 2007. He recalled driving past the closed apartment buildings plagued with crime and thought, "This may be bad enough to get our attention."

Winn has been involved with the restoration of row houses on Central Street in the South End and with the development of the Museum Park apartments on Chestnut Street.

The plan, to demolish some of the buildings to decrease the density in the complex and to seek funding for affordable housing units, proved to be divisive in the Forest Park neighborhood. Two citizen groups backed the proposal, the Forest Park Civic Association and Concerned Citizens of Springfield and another, Springfield Forward, opposed it.

Winn said, "Often times housing projects, especially affordable ones, serve as microcosm of the community's ills. It's unfair to burden a single 100-unit development with these responsibilities."

The company removed all of the buildings on the south side of the street and removed part of one on the north side, he explained. The apartments are a mix of market rate, affordable and subsidized units.

Winn said the recession challenged the financing of the project and said the project had "its ups and downs."

The renovations cost $20 million and created 100 construction jobs, Winn added.

Mayor Domenic Sarno said the building had gone through "tumultuous times," but now the families there live in "a safe clean environment."