Enterprise Community Development was scheduled to formally launch construction on a four-story complex of 66 affordable apartment units in North Side, on Thursday, May 4.

Site work began in January on the $21 million project being developed at 1224 E. Brookland Park Blvd. in Highland Park, according to the Maryland-based nonprofit.

Nearly 10 years in the making, the 66 apartments are going up on a 1 acre property where the Nehemiah House Community Center and Mizpah Presbyterian Church once stood. Only a frontal fraction of the church remains, which will be incorporated into the new complex to be known as the Brookland Park Apartments.

The property sits across the street from a former public school Enterprise previously renovated and that contains 77 apartments primarily for seniors. The project is one of two long-awaited developments that housing nonprofits have launched in Highland Park.

Farther south, the Richmond-based Better Housing Coalition (BHC) has begun site work for a 122-unit subdivision on a 40-acre property on Dove Street where the headquarters of the Virginia National Guard once stood.

The $35 million subdivision of single-family homes and townhouses will sit next to Highland Grove’s 128 mixed-income apartments that replaced public housing and dilapidated private apartments a decade ago.

BHC was selected as the master developer in 2020, and is partnering with project:Homes, the Maggie Walker Community Land Trust and the Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity on the construction, according to Greta Harris, BHC president and CEO.

The city is contributing about $4 million to pay for installation of infrastructure, including underground utilities and internal streets.

Ms. Harris said it could take seven years to complete the proposed 122 new houses. Based on the projected cost, the homes would be built for $287,000 per unit.

At least half, or 61, she said are to be designated as affordable and sold to first-time homebuyers with subsidies to bring down the cost. The remainder will be sold at market rates, she said.