Foss & Company partners with New York state HCR to advance affordable housing through historic tax credits and PLP financing

Albany, NY Foss & Company has closed four historic rehabilitation investments in Buffalo, Albany, Fredonia, and Kingston supported by New York State Homes and Community Renewal’s (HCR) Small Building Participation Loan Program (PLP). Together, the projects — the Eckhardt Building, the Selfridge & Langford Building, 343 Central, and 80 Washington St. — will create or preserve 156 affordable housing units, pairing PLP financing with state and federal Historic Tax Credits (HTC) to close financing gaps that HTC equity alone cannot bridge on smaller-scale rehabilitation projects.

“PLP is one of the more effective tools New York has for reaching the small and mid-sized buildings that larger financing structures tend to pass over,” said John Sorel of Foss & Company. “When you pair it with historic tax credit equity, you get a model that works in Fredonia as well as it does in Buffalo — proof that public-private partnerships like this can scale across very different markets.”

HCR administers PLP as part of its mission to build, preserve, and protect affordable housing while supporting community revitalization. The program provides low-interest financing specifically for rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of existing affordable housing, addressing a gap that has historically made smaller rehabilitation deals difficult to finance through conventional channels.

The Four Projects

Eckhardt Building — Buffalo
A 1940s former department store in Buffalo’s Broadway-Fillmore Historic District, now delivering 28 affordable apartments (rents restricted to an average of 65% AMI) and roughly 22,000 s/f of commercial space, fully leased to a nonprofit child day care provider. Construction is complete.

Selfridge & Langford Building — Albany
A four-story former furniture showroom near the State Capitol, being converted into 49 rent-restricted units (up to 80% AMI) with approximately 3,900 s/f of ground-floor commercial space and shared resident amenities.

343 Central — Fredonia
Rehabilitation of six existing multifamily properties totaling 40 units — sixteen one-bedroom and twenty-four two-bedroom apartments affordable at up to 80% AMI. Developer Good Carbon is incorporating geothermal systems and other efficiency upgrades.

80 Washington Street — Kingston
Adaptive reuse of the former Home for the Aged of Ulster County into 39 affordable apartments (up to 80% AMI), open to tenants of any age, preserving a historic Hudson Valley asset.

“We’re proud of our continued work with HCR,” Sorel said, “and we’ll keep building on this model of pairing PLP with historic tax credits to reach communities that need it most.”