Dreams could come true in downtown Peekskill for the beleaguered senior citizens living at 901 Main Street.
In May of 2024, a courageous group of residents told members of the Peekskill Common Council of the horrible living conditions they were enduring.
“Our apartment building is overrun with drug addicts, prostitutes, homeless people, and drug dealers. I went to visit my neighbor downstairs – two days in a row, and saw used condoms on the floor,” said Elizabeth Jones, a tenant at Peekskill Plaza Apartments, said at the May 13 meeting.
Others recounted a failed security system that allowed intruders to enter the building at will, stolen packages and deliveries, demands from strangers for money, constant calls to the Peekskill Police Department and failures of management to address their concerns. Scaffolding surrounding the building has been in place for years with no visible repairs to the crumbling brickwork.
Mayor Vivian McKenzie told the seniors that night that City Manager Matt Alexander would meet with Peekskill’s building department and code enforcement and contact the owner of the building. Alexander held a meeting with the building’s residents and State Senator Pete Harckham also met with them in December of 2024.
Now, after months of efforts by Alexander and staff from the Peekskill Industrial Development Agency (PIDA), a potential buyer has emerged.
A new owner to the rescue?
Will Blodgett, CEO and founder of Tredway, told board members of the Peekskill IDA on Sept. 30 that his company is prepared to invest nearly $30 million to give the residents at 901 Main the quality of life that everyone deserves.
“In these buildings, 98% of the people are great people and we have to make sure that we do our best to ensure that they have a high, safe quality of life. That’s incumbent upon us as owners to make sure that happens,” Blodgett said at the PIDA meeting in the Common Council chambers.
Blodgett is in discussions with current owner Courtyard Housing Limited Partnership, based in Manhasset, N.Y., to buy the property. He told the IDA board the deal can’t happen without the property tax relief he is requesting.
Peekskill City Manager Alexander told the Peekskill Herald officials will continue their talks with Blodgett. “The city is eager to learn more about Tredway and how their ownership would improve conditions at 901 Main Street. We have had a few discussions with their company. We like their mission statement and dedication to this project and are hopeful that they will be able to take on this property with successful results.”
Since founding Tredway in 2021, Blodgett has overseen growth into nine states with 3,500 units built, bought or preserved across the country and 1,500 units in various stages of active development in New York City.
Tredway’s acquisitions include 816 units of Section 8 housing at Sea Park Apartments in Brooklyn; Midtown Towers, a 95-unit historic, high-rise apartment building in downtown Pittsburgh; an affordable housing portfolio comprised of 14 properties and 715 units spanning The Research Triangle in North Carolina; and two affordable senior housing properties, Riverview Towers in Camden and Forest Hill House in Newark.
The plan to restore Peekskill Plaza Apartments
Blodgett said his firm will install new stainless steel appliances in each apartment, hire onsite security personnel and restore the plaza area, facade and parapet and remove the scaffolding.
Other plans include hiring a full-time, onsite property manager and adding a resident service coordinator. Tredway will contribute $1.5 million toward repairs of the city-owned parking garage connected to 901 Main Street.
The $5.5 million rehab portion of the work includes $840,000 for appliances in each of the 168 apartments; $150,000 for a new security system and $2.5 million for the structural repair work to the building.
He emphasized that his firm is focused on improving the quality of life for the residents beyond just the physical improvements of the building.
“Our elderly population is feeling increasingly isolated and alone and are suffering from loneliness,” said Blodgett. “We have found in our company that the best thing to do to address that feeling of being alone is that folks like to come out and meet around food.
“People come down from their apartments at breakfast when we put out some food and that helps with the issue of people staying upstairs in their own homes all the time. This helps create a sense of fellowship and community.”
A 901 Main Street resident who helped publicize the problems in the building last year told the Herald this week that she is pleased with improvements she sees happening while negotiations are underway with the potential new owner.
“It’s like 90% better. Everything‘s good, there’s no more drug addicts, drug dealers running around. All the ladies are enjoying sitting outside, sometimes till 10 o’clock at night. The whole area is lighter, not just our building complex, so I’m overjoyed,” said Elizabeth, asking that her last name not be disclosed.
Seeing homes destroyed creates a mission in life
Blodgett grew up poor in Chicago. Bullied for having a stutter, his childhood friends consisted of a few kids who lived in public housing projects, kids who came to his aid when no one else would, he recalls. As Chicago set about demolishing this housing stock, his friends were forced out of the neighborhood.
“They tore down the Chicago Housing Authority, and my friends were there on a Tuesday, and they were gone the next Thursday,” Blodgett said when addressing the IDA board members.
“That never sat very well with me. When I got out of college in 2006, I went straight into the affordable housing industry. I didn’t know what it was but I knew I wanted to help my friends.”
Mired in problems both at home and in school, he entered his teenage years with a chip on his shoulder and a reputation for getting into fights.
His parents, worried about their eldest son’s future if he stayed in Chicago, moved the family to Southern California with the help of a relative. He was flunking out of Laguna Beach High School until the school’s football coach convinced him to join the team, showing him a path to college. He began spending all of his time in the gym or in the library, ultimately earning a scholarship to Deerfield Academy, as a postgraduate, and subsequently, Yale University.
At Yale, Blodgett earned varsity letters as a wide receiver on the football team, and participated in club hockey and basketball. To help pay for school, he held various odd jobs including working in Yale’s gym facility office and as a groundskeeper at the school’s golf course.
After college, Blodgett went to work in the public sector before going to business school at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.
At MIT, he headed the school’s real estate club and ran the renowned Sloan Sports Analytics Conference under the direction of Daryl Morey, current president of basketball operations for the Philadelphia 76ers. With the support of Morey and mentor Professor Bill Aulet, founder of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, Blodgett began to think about how to translate his values into a business that solves real-world problems.
Tax relief could make or break deal
Calling his Peekskill proposal a “unique situation,” Blodgett said his firm must have property taxes on the building reduced to zero to make the deal work. While affordable housing projects are most often funded through tax-exempt bonds and low-income housing tax credits, neither option is available in this case. Government agencies are offering those funding vehicles to new construction of affordable housing projects, not rehabilitation projects like what is needed at 901 Main Street, he said.
The current owner of the building pays approximately $150,000 annually through a 40-year PILOT [payment in lieu of taxes], negotiated originally in 2006. Blodgett wants the IDA and the Common Council to reduce that amount to zero. He’s also asking that the IDA waive the $130,889 sales tax and $225,186 mortgage tax involved in the purchase of the building.
Blodgett said that he hopes he will win approvals from the Common Council and the IDA for his requested tax exemptions so he can close on the purchase of the building by the end of 2025 and start the rehab immediately after he owns the property.
The IDA collects the annual property tax for a PILOT and then distributes the funds. In this proposal, the City of Peekskill would lose $37,500 annually in a total city budget of $51 million, while the school district would lose $112,500 in a total budget of $131 million.
The $1.5 million Blodgett will give the city to help repair the adjoining city-owned parking garage is by itself equal to the 40-year total tax break he’s requesting on his city property tax bill.
Blodgett will finance the deal 100% privately without low-income housing tax credits or tax-exempt bonds. He’ll raise $25 million through mortgage financing, put in $2.87 million of his own money, secure a $1.5 million loan from the seller, and receive the tax breaks from IDA.
“I believe that the American Dream is still alive and well, and it is upward socioeconomic mobility,” Blodgett said at the IDA meeting. “Its three main components are healthcare, education and housing. Without clean, safe, respectable housing the other two don’t count as much. Without a home, it’s incredibly hard to get a start.”
