New Owner Briefs River Glen Housing Residents on Remodel

Last month Augusta Housing Authority agreed to issue some $16.5 million in tax-exempt bonds for new owner Dominium to renovate the complex. It will be at least the third time the housing authority, which doesn’t run or monitor the low-income complex, has helped a developer rehabilitate it.

“She will have a whole new apartment,” said Felicia Rhodes, who has worked as a community resources staffer for apartment management for four years but does not live there, about Maston.

Eric Omdahl, a senior development associate with Dominium, appeared with new and previous owners for a Wednesday meeting with residents. Omdahl said residents will begin to move over the next couple of weeks and renovations will begin April 1.

Renovations will be done in phases and only some of the existing tenants will have to move out, Omdahl said.

“We’re going to be able to move some people into a completed unit without having to be relocated off-site,” he said. “They’ll just transfer to a new unit. Some folks will have to be relocated temporarily.”

Omdahl said he expects the complex to remain fully occupied at its maximum of two people per bedroom. All residents must complete an eligibility form to remain housed there, he said.

“As soon as everyone who lives here now completes the paperwork with our management team and they continue to qualify, which we expect them to, there won’t be any permanent displacement,” he said.

Click to read article in Augusta Chronicle