Ground was broken Tuesday on Camp Salute, which will be a 76-bedroom apartment complex on Delsea Drive behind the Clayton Mews apartments.
The buildings will feature 19 apartments set aside for veterans with disabilities, a community room, and the South Jersey Veteran Resources Center. There, staffers from the People for People Foundation will help veterans – including those who live outside Camp Salute – access services like their educational benefits.
The idea for the project came about in 2010 when Allan Connors, a Vietnam vet who spoke at the ceremony, proposed the idea of a space to house veterans in need. The next five years were spent selecting a site, Sam Leone, President of Conifer Realty, said at the event. Then, financing had to be secured for the project, for which development is expected to cost nearly $23 million.
Funding for the project is helped by Low Income Housing Tax Credits which total about $18 million in equity. There is also a construction loan of about $12.6 million and a mortgage of about $3.6 million from Capital One.
A quarter of the units will fix the rent at 30 percent of a tenant’s income. For the remaining units, a one bedroom will cost $714-$870; $845-$1,120 for a two-bedroom and $981-$1,197 for a three-bedroom unit.