Published: July 11, 2009 02:22 am      

TOWN OF LOCKPORT: Nelson Hopkins Apartments are on the way

TOWN OF LOCKPORT — It’s been a long road, but the Nelson Hopkins Apartments are coming.

The Elizabeth Pierce Olmsted Center for the Visually Impaired held a groundbreaking ceremony Friday to officially start the construction process for the $4 million project. The two-story, 24-unit apartment complex will offer housing for those with visual impairments or physical disabilities. The complex is located at 5562 Davison Road in the Ulrich Business Park, south of Lincoln Avenue in the Town of Lockport.

“We are really excited to get started,” said Milissa Acquard, Olmsted Center’s chief operating officer. “The state has been very helpful. It’s been a real team effort.”

The town planning board gave the green light for the project almost three years ago. The project was held up by funding concerns, which were resolved in May. Now construction will begin and is expected to be completed by spring 2010, Acquard said. Those interested in trying to land an apartment in the Hopkins complex, can either call the Olmsted Center’s property management program at 882-1025 or go online to the center’s Web site at www.olmstedcenter.org.

Francine Rizzo, director of planned giving at the Olmsted Center, said those

who are interested in applying will have to go through an application and interview process. The center will also look at the applicant’s disability and application before making a decision. But there could be quite a number of people interested.

“There’s a waiting list at our other complexes,” Rizzo said.

State Housing and Community Renewal Commissioner Deborah Van Amerongen said the Hopkins complex came together despite the financial hard times. She credited the hard work of the Olmsted Center and its partners in bringing the project this far. There was a little help from Washington, D.C., too, she said.

“These are difficult times for this kind of housing,” Van Amerongen said. “This is going to be a project that is financed by the stimulus package. We are not able to keep the financing of affordable housing going without those kinds of resources.”

Mike Mallia, chief of staff for state Assemblywoman Jane Corwin, R-Clarence, said the complex brings benefits for the entire community.

“These are precisely the type of projects that are good for both the community and the disabled and economic development,” he said.

The complex is named in memory of the late L. Nelson Hopkins, who served as a board member of the Olmsted Center for many years. It is also the sixth housing complex the Olmsted Center has opened in Western New York. Currently there are two complexes in the Tonawandas and three in Buffalo, where the Olmsted Center is located. Those present at Friday’s groundbreaking spoke a little about Hopkins.

“He was a wonderful, wonderful gentleman,” said Patricia Clabeaux, vice chairwoman of the Olmsted Center’s board of directors. “He truly supported the Olmsted Center. He was an inspiration.”

When completed, the Nelson Hopkins Apartments will have a staff present 24 hours a day, but the people who will be living there are independent, Rizzo said.

Contact reporter Joe Olenick at 439-9222, ext. 6241.