The city of Ithaca took a major step in solving their housing problem.

The Ithaca Urban Renewal Agency selected the Vecino Group to be in charge of turning the Green Street Garage into affordable housing.

The phrase “paying for the view” will have a whole new meaning for tenants in Ithaca. The Vecino Group will develop the garage into a place for people to park themselves after a long day of work. Their proposal was to turn it from a structure in need of repairs into affordable housing.

“People who are making $30,000 a year, people who are starting as teachers and nurses are going to have a chance to live in the heart of a thriving and growing economy,” said Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick.

It’s an economy that sees, rents rise faster than salaries.  According to a study by Zillow in 2014, Ithaca ranks right behind New York City in least affordable rent.  It’s a feeling also shared by the developer.  The Missouri based developer said they haven’t seen a bigger demand for affordable housing.

“You’ve got people driving from way out of town to come to work and then drive back out of town and that’s, that’s no way to live so we hope to make a big dent in that,” said Vecino Group President Rick Manzardo.

The target of “Asteria Ithaca” is all inclusive.  It’ll be affordable to anyone from an artist to recent graduates.

“It really affects a lot of diverse groups of people and it’s not just maybe you’re stigmatized low income but it really will serve a lot of different people,” said Vecino Group architect Molly Chiang.

“Now they’ll be able to live in the core of the city. It’s walking distance to the library, to cinemapolis, to restaurants, to bars. It’s a very nice thing,” said Myrick.

In total it’ll have 206 apartments.

It could turn some of those commuters into Ithacans. But what can they expect?

“For the tenants themselves they’ll have a fitness center, a community room, and outdoor view vistas,” said Manzardo

The group is still working on the downstairs plans. They’re in talks with Greenstar to add a grocery store.

“We’ll begin the site plan review process eventually and that’s when things will really start to be visual,” said Chiang.

More affordable housing is certainly needed. But this new development could be a deposit in making Ithaca a little more affordable for residents. Construction could start in the next couple of years.