Architectural rendering of Dewitt Street redevelopment. The redevelopment of a former housing cooperative in the Hill will soon net 64 new (mostly) affordable apartments, with another 40 units set to be renovated over the next two years — thanks to a second alder-approved tax break.That’s the latest with the former Hill Central Community Co-op buildings on Washington Avenue, Howard Avenue, Dewitt Street, and Putnam Street. Those buildings were originally constructed in 1980 and operated as an affordable housing cooperative until June 2017, when the current owners, the Branford-based Westmount Management, purchased the property for $3.7 million.The first phase of the project involved demolishing 32 apartments — largely in the buildings closest to Howard Avenue — and replacing them with 64 new units.Fifty-one of those new units will rent at below-market rates, for households making between 30 and 60 percent of the area median income (AMI), while the other 13 apartments will have market rents. In 2024, a four-person household making between $34,830 and $69,660 would qualify for the apartments. Initially, construction on those first 64 apartments was slated to be completed by the end of December. Westmount Vice President Rick Ross told the Independent that the plan now is for that first-phase work to be done by the end of January.“We just got behind the beginning of the project a little bit,” Ross said. ​“But the construction has generally gone according to plan. So, so far, so good.”At the same time, the developer is gearing up for the second phase of the redevelopment — a ​“gut renovation” of 40 three-bedroom townhouses, all of which are covered by a contract with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as Section 8 housing.The contract currently sets the units’ monthly rent at $1,750 apiece. Residents are only required to pay up to 30 percent of their income in rent, with the rest being covered by Section 8 vouchers.Westmount estimates that this phase-two renovation will cost around $27.4 million. In addition to the 40 to-be-renovated apartments, it will also add a new management office and community space to the site. The renovated units will remain Section 8 housing. To help finance the renovations, the developers applied for and received a tax abatement from the Board of Alders on the 40 townhouse units. Alders agreed to set the annual property taxes on each unit at $450, with that amount increasing 3 percent each year for the 17-year term of the deal. The 51 phase-one affordable units already under construction received a similar tax abatement from the alders in May 2023.The phase-two abatement was approved unanimously by the full Board of Alders at their Dec. 16 meeting. Ross described the abatement as essential to helping finance the project.“Because the cost of construction is so high, you need to maximize your sources of funding,” he told the Independent. ​“The [tax] abatements allow us to contribute to our ability to maximize those sources.”Now, Westmount is working with the quasi-public Connecticut Housing Finance Authority to secure sufficient funding for the project, a process Ross says is ​“pretty close” to finishing.And while the construction will temporarily relocate the current townhouse residents, Ross said the plan is to house them in the already completed apartments until the renovations are finished, likely in early 2027. “Nobody will be displaced,” he said.Phase 1 redev on the rise in the Hill.