Fall occupancy expected for low-income housing.

The return of quality low-income housing to the Bronx has received a strong boost from the most recent project by architect and community-based housing expert Michael Avramides.

This October, 68 apartments will open in the Jacquline Denise Davis Court Building at 576 East 165th Street and Boston Road, benefitting from Avramides' special talent "to improve housing conditions in the South Bronx, block by block and dream by dream."

Avramides has often designed and managed projects for community groups in Harlem and the Bronx. The 51,700-square-foot Davis Court Building, a venture of the Morrisania Revitalization Corporation, is among the few remaining large, low-income housing rehabilitation efforts underway in the borough.

The Martin Luther King Commission has just leased the Davis Court Building's 4,000-square-foot street-level commercial space for its offices and exhibit space. MRC has designated an additional 2,000 square feet on-site for a community center, the kind of facility traditionally included in their buildings.

The apartment building has been named in the memory of the late daughter of New York State Assemblywoman Gloria Davis. Davis has been instrumental in MRC's success from the start.

The Davis Court Building has been rehabilitated at a cost of $4.7 million. Part of its finding is from the Enterprise Foundation, just as it has been for MRC's other, similar efforts. (Based in Maryland, Enterprise is a "national nonprofit group active in developing housing for low-income families.") Davis Court was among the first to begin -- and to be completed - under LISC/Enterprise's Round V program.

The NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development is also providing a 30-year loan through the New York Equity Fund, to cover half of the project's costs.

Avramides designed the renovations to the aparment building, which now includes 68 units of Class A apartments: 14 one-bedroom units, 49 two-bedroom, and 5 three-bedroom. As part of his work, Avramides completely repaired the facade, replacing nearly 600 wood-framed, double-hung windows. New wiring and plumbing, as well as new bathrooms and kitchens were required throughout.