Dozens of local dignitaries were on hand for the ribbon cutting of the long-awaited senior apartment complex at the former Toll Road Park in North Syracuse Friday Sept. 9. The two-building, 60-unit complex, designed for people 65 and older, first opened to residents in July. Fay Indivero, known as “Grandma Fay,” was the first to move in.

This is a tremendous facility we have here in a beautiful location,” said North Syracuse Mayor Mark Atkinson. “I’m very proud to be the mayor of this amazing village today.

Friday’s ribbon cutting was the culmination of a process that began in 2008, when then-Deputy Mayor Diane Browning, who also served as the village’s Senior Advocate, started looking around for viable options for senior housing within the village limits. She called Susan Kimmel, president of Two Plus Four Companies, which builds and manages apartment buildings for seniors. Two Plus Four’s complexes are not assisted living facilities; they are affordable housing units that cater to people 65 and over, providing access to programming, care and other amenities seniors need or might enjoy.

Kimmel said she and Browning began to examine places in the village where such a structure might go.

“Where we’re standing right now used to be the Toll Road park, and the village determined that it was a park in need of desperate repair and that perhaps it was time to seek out a different use,” she said. “With the aid of Sen. Valesky and at the time Assemblyman Stirpe, they were able to introduce bills to remove the parcel from the parks service.”

After going through the proper RFP and bidding procedures, Two Plus Four, in partnership with Bragman Companies, created a three-pronged proposal for a senior housing complex at the former Toll Road Park site. The first piece of the proposal was the 60-unit apartment complex, but that wasn’t all that Two Plus Four brought to the table; they also planned to relocate pieces from the historical park, as well as offer new office space to the North Syracuse Housing Authority on site. In June of 2010, they broke ground, and in July of 2011, tenants began moving in. By the end of this month, the building manager expects all units will be occupied.

“These types of projects only happen when we have the support of the local officials and the municipality,” Kimmel said. “They’re really the reason that we can even start down this path.”

The $11 million project was funded through a combination of loans as well as a $200,000 Rural Area Revitalization grant, $2.4 million in housing trust funds from the New York State Homes and Community Renewal Office and an allocation of federal tax credit dollars that translated into a $7.7 million equity investment from Two Plus Four’s investment partners, Raymond James.

Atkinson said he’s very pleased with the facility, which fits perfectly into the community and actually creates more usable park space than the village had before taking Toll Road Park out of commission.

“It’s within the park,” he said. “You’ve got the historical artifacts right over there, which came out really nice, and there’s a beautiful playground also on site. The final piece is that, upon completion of this project, those parcels will be deeded back to the village of North Syracuse. So what was once an old, out-of-repair park will now have a functioning park area.”

Both buildings have laundry rooms on both floors, indoor mailboxes, indoor trash facilities and elevators. There are emergency pull cords in each bedroom and bathroom of every apartment should a tenant be unable to reach a phone. Senior manager Kirsten Cary-Hoke said the complex is nearly full, with 56 of the 60 apartments rented, including all of the two-bedrooms. She expected the last apartments to be rented out by the end of September.

Atkinson said something like this is necessary in an area like North Syracuse, which has such a large senior population.

“Recently the 2010 census came out,” he said. “One of the stats that is in there is the average number of people in the community over a certain age, and in this case, that’s 65. For a community similar to this, the average across the country is approximately 12 percent. In North Syracuse, it’s 19.6 percent.”

That’s why the village also has a senior advocate – in this case, a familiar face.

“This is an indication of Diane Browning’s commitment to this community,” Kimmel said. “She’s been our deputy mayor, our mayor, now our former mayor, and she will now serve as our senior advocate. She has graciously volunteered her time to set up shop in our building to assist the seniors continually, not just the seniors in our building, but the seniors throughout the village of North Syracuse.”

Atkinson put it this way.

“If it wasn’t for Diane, we wouldn’t be here today.”

If you are interested in putting in an application to live at the Toll Road Senior Apartments, call 1-800-838-0441.