$46 million affordable housing complex opens in Lexington. City to add 650 units by fall

Several weeks ago, Oliver Mabson was outside the new Alcove At Russell apartments when a woman pulled up.

The eight-building affordable housing complex in the Winburn neighborhood — complete with clubhouse and playground — was just opening.

“Why would they build something like this here?” the woman asked.

“Why wouldn’t they?” replied Mabson, the 202-unit apartment manager. “Don’t you think this area deserves to have a fair shot just like everyone else?”

“We want this to be a flagship,” he said during a Tuesday ribbon-cutting for the Alcove, one of the largest new affordable housing complexes to open in Lexington in years.

The Alcove has one, two and three-bedroom apartments for people who make 60% or less of the area median income. For a family of four, that’s up to $53,380 a year. The Alcove also accepts U.S. Housing and Urban Development housing vouchers called Housing Choice, formerly referred to as Section 8 vouchers.

The $46 million apartment complex was developed by LDG Development of Louisville. LDG Development is one of the leading providers of affordable housing in the United States.

“Everyone deserves a safe, affordable home,” said Chris Dischinger, co-founder of LDG. LDG has created 4,000 affordable housing units in Kentucky. It also developed Gleneagles in the Hamburg area.

Safe, affordable housing leads to better health outcomes, he said. Studies show kids who move a lot or don’t have stable housing often fall behind in school compared to those who have stable homes.

Financing for the project came from a combination of sources including the Kentucky Housing Corporation, R4 Capital and the Lexington Affordable Housing Fund, which gave $1.2 million in financing for the project. Expert Construction served as the general contractor.

Since 2014, the city has allocated $34 million to affordable housing, Mayor Linda Gorton said, which has brought in more than $395 million in other funding to build or preserve 3,200 affordable housing units.

“Affordable housing is a pressing need in our city and we are glad to see this new development fully open,” Gorton said.

Hundreds of new affordable housing units coming soon

Commissioner of Housing Advocacy and Community Development Charlie Lanter said the Alcove is just the first new affordable housing project to open in Lexington this summer. Two other developments, one off of Georgetown Road and a second off of Newtown Pike, are scheduled to open by late summer or early fall. Those two developments together will have 454 new units. With the Alcove, that means 656 new affordable rental units will be available for rent likely by fall.

That’s the most new units the city has helped finance in some time, Lanter said.

But more units will open, too, in coming years.

Since 2021, the city has allocated $15.1 million — most of it through American Rescue Plan Act funding — to affordable housing.

“The next few years we will see a lot more units come online,” Lanter said.

Those units are needed.

Nearly every day, Lanter’s office fields calls from Fayette County residents desperate to find a safe, affordable place to live, he said.

The Lexington council recently voted to add up to 5,000 acres to the city’s growth boundary for the first time since 1996. The cost of housing was a key argument for those pushing to expand the boundary. However, Gorton and others pointed out there was no guarantee affordable housing would be built in the new expansion area. The council later amended language to expand the boundary to encourage the Urban County Planning Commission to emphasize affordable housing when it develops a new master plan for the expansion area.

Lexington-Fayette Urban County Councilman James Brown, who represented the Winburn area, said LDG also took an underutilized piece of land and turned it into much-needed housing in an area of the city that has traditionally not seen a lot of new development.

The property was undeveloped for a variety of reasons. It was Rick McQuady, the city’s long-time affordable housing director, who was able to steer LDG to the property off of Winburn Drive, Brown said.

Mabson said the first four buildings are now open.

“We still have availability,” Mabson said.

The second four buildings will open in late summer or early fall. A one-bedroom unit starts at $929. The units have all hard-wood floors, large kitchens and walk-in showers. To apply call 859-309-3462.