Accessibilty for all: Eastern Shore's Freedom Apartments

Terry Kroll began serving people in need as a nursing home assistant at age 15. At 22, she earned a nursing degree and continued to care for the ill, elderly and disabled, loving all her patients -"even the grumpy ones," she half joked.

But her voice took on a nervous quiver as she described later years, wrought by work-related injuries, hip and back surgeries, heavy-duty medication for pain, caring for her dying father, temporary homelessness and eventual physical disability.

Before arriving this summer in Exmore on Virginia's Eastern Shore, she and her husband, Chuck, 51, lived in Las Vegas. There, Kroll had grown increasingly dependent on mobility assistance.

Stairs, bathrooms and her home's overall layout presented newfound obstacles, while the sandy, rocky and treeless environment outside proved unfriendly, too.

Remembering the challenges, Kroll, 55, squeezed her husband's hand and took a deep breath.

"For the first time in my life, I did not feel the presence of the Lord," she said. But someone had been working behind the scenes to answer her prayers.

Weeks ago the couple packed their belongings and Sheba, Kroll's pointer-mix therapy dog, and headed for Exmore in their 18-year-old van.

As planned, they landed at AP's Freedom Apartments, a new, fully accessible, rent-subsidized apartment complex for adults with qualifying disabilities and low incomes.

The complex, at 11366 Occohannock Neck Road in Exmore, officially opened Aug. 11. Developed by Accessible Space Inc. - a Minnesota-based nonprofit housing and service provider for adults with physical disabilities and low incomes - and its co-sponsor, the Eastern Shore Center for Independent Living, the project received funding and support from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 811 program, Accomack-Northampton Planning District Commission and Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. It's also the first of its kind to be subsidized by HUD on the Eastern Shore, according to Althea Patrice Pittman, Eastern Shore Center for Independent Living's executive director.

Fourteen one-bedroom units each feature about 540 square feet of barrier-free, wheelchair-accessible living space in support of residents' independence. Adaptations include lever-action door handles; adjusted-height appliances, counter tops, electrical switches and outlets; roomy bathrooms with roll-in showers, grab bars and roll-under sinks with one-piece counter tops for easy cleaning; high-yield/high-strength carpets made for wheelchairs; tilt-out windows for easy cleaning; and visible and audible strobes on emergency alarms.

Units also include kitchen pantries, large bedroom closets with low shelving and programmable thermostats for individual climate control.

The one-story building, which is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, features a controlled-access entry system, wide hallways and doorways, kick-plates on doors, a laundry room and a community room with kitchen for socializing and events.

When complete, the outdoor patio will sport shaded tables and chairs and a gas grill, said property caretaker Joe Porter, who lives on the premises with his wife.

The $350 rent includes water, sewer and garbage and snow removal services. Tenants' portions amount to 30 percent of the household's adjusted gross monthly income, and HUD subsidizes the difference when necessary.

This arrangement enables people who might otherwise live in nursing homes or group homes to "be independent and... still have leftover income to pay their bills, do grocery shopping and pay for transportation," said Ken Berry, director of property management for Accessible Space Inc. "It's a quality of life issue."

Without this option, he said, folks "may be home-bound, due to the lack of accessible features," or struggle to afford an accessible, yet expensive, arrangement, and forgo nutritional, medical and other necessities.

The Krolls' new lifestyle brings them closer to family in Maryland, supportive friends and day trips to Assateague.

Their neighbor, Linda Lemon, left the Eastern Shore's Temperanceville for AP's Freedom. For years Lemon, 59, had volunteered in her community's schools and churches, fulfilling her desires to be social and involved. But trouble breathing, walking, sitting and bending worsened.

Volunteering, maintaining her home and getting out to shop became nearly impossible. Now she's close enough to handle a short drive to stores, church, medical facilities and everything else she needs, she said.

To Pittman, who lost her eyesight at age 30 and for whom the development was named, AP's Freedom Apartments is proof that vision of another kind transcends blindness.

The Hampton native worked as a peer counselor and advocate for people with disabilities at the Peninsula Center for Independent Living in her hometown prior to her career move to the Eastern Shore Center for Independent Living 12 years ago. She'd experienced alienation from a sighted public, debunked people's misconceptions and become an advocate for herself time and again. But when she sought affordable and appropriate housing in her new town, Pittman found it scarce and realized it was a problem she needed to tackle.

In 2004, Pittman took the reigns, intent on providing such a place for others. With Accessible Space's help she "learned the ropes, the different policies and the people" involved, she said. "It was hard trying to get them to understand that we were actually talking about individuals who will benefit from this.

"People would only see my cane," Pittman said. " they'd think, 'Well she's blind,' and 'Somebody else will take care of y'all. You don't need to live by yourself.' But it's not right for somebody else to decide. Let me determine that."

The first residents arrived Sept. 1.

Accessible Space manages the development and more than 100 others in 27 states, including The Sanderling in Chesapeake and The Anchorage in Norfolk. As of Monday AP's Freedom Apartments still had a few openings. Future applicants may join a waiting list.

Eligible tenants meet income limits and pass required credit, rental and criminal history screenings. At least one member of the household must have a qualifying disability. Approved pets are also welcome with an additional security deposit.

"I didn't think it was going to come through," Pittman said. "But everything I'd wanted, and in my mind, could see, it's happened."

"People now have another alternative. That just blesses me."

Apartment Graduation Blues

BUYING high and selling low is not the best way to make a name or build a fortune on Wall Street. But once that fortune is made, even big names on the street seem willing to sacrifice a few million here or there to the gods of the Fifth Avenue co-op boards.

On that street — the one facing the east side of Central Park — several big financial players bought large, expensive co-ops at or near the top of the Manhattan residential market over the last year or two, and then set out to renovate them.

But with co-op boards setting strict rules for renovations, and limiting big construction jobs to summer months, these owners held on to their smaller apartments in the same buildings. With the summer construction season over, they have listed their older, smaller apartments in a now-weakened co-op market, in which places are selling at a discount of 25 percent.

Last December, John A. Griffin, the founder of Blue Ridge Capital, a hedge fund, closed on the $32.5 million purchase of a full-floor apartment on the 10th floor of 1030 Fifth Avenue. Mr. Griffin, who ranked ninth on a list of the top 10 hedge fund earners the year before, with earnings of $625 million, snatched up the apartment before it was officially listed on the market, from Richard J. Schmeelk, an investment banker.

For the last six or so years, Mr. Griffin and his wife, Amy, already resided in a somewhat smaller apartment on the eighth floor of 1030 Fifth, so getting approved by the co-op board was straightforward. (Brokers did say, however, that the owners of one Park Avenue apartment were embarrassed last year when their co-op board spurned their effort to buy another apartment in the same building).

The Griffins set about renovating their new place, according to building records; they rebuilt bathrooms and the kitchen, and installed a gas-burning fireplace. When the summer was over, they listed their old apartment with an asking price of $16.5 million. Serena Boardman of Sotheby’s International Realty is the broker, but it’s a whisper listing, an exclusive not officially shared with other brokerage firms. The Griffins paid $13.5 million for the place in 2003.

Ms. Boardman declined to comment. She may be busy these days, as she also has the listing for Bernard Madoff’s penthouse on East 64th Street.

But another broker specializing in Upper East Side properties indicated that the delay in listing the old apartment would most likely cost the Griffins millions when it was finally sold. “That was a really expensive renovation for him,” the broker said.

Some sellers at 1030 Fifth have already had their dreams of huge profits dashed in the current market. In June 2008 Karen Fleiss, a hedge fund manager, listed her lower-floor duplex for $47.5 million. After a series of vicious price cuts, and a change in brokers, the duplex is now listed with Dolly Lenz of Prudential Douglas Elliman for $19.9 million. Half of the duplex is also available for $9.9 million.

Charles R. Schwab Jr., the founder and chief executive of the Charles Schwab Corporation, had a similar renovation experience, at 834 Fifth Avenue, the building with the famous triplex once owned by Laurance S. Rockefeller, now occupied by Rupert Murdoch.

Mr. Schwab, who was reported last year to have a fortune worth $6.2 billion, had owned a small apartment on the 15th floor of the building for years. In May 2007 he and his wife, Helen, bought a larger apartment on the ninth floor. It was a different market back then. The co-op, an estate sale, was listed at $16.5 million by Kathryn Steinberg of Edward Lee Cave, now a division of Brown Harris Stevens, but sold to the Schwabs after a bidding war for $27.7 million. The Schwabs filed plans for a renovation, including the removal of three bathtubs, in January 2008. In March 2009 they filed more plans, to bring in a new gas pipe and replace the windows. At the end of August, they amended their plans to show that they had installed a new gas range and a gas fireplace.

A few weeks ago, as the fall selling season got under way, they put their smaller apartment on the market for $14 million with Roger Erickson of Sotheby’s.