Late developer Rhonda A. Ricks, president and CEO of R+A+R Development, was the first female New York State Minority and Women Owned Enterprise-certified housing developer in Western New York.
Her company's first signature project was the redevelopment of former Public School 59 at 769 Best St. into the 59-unit Parkview Apartments, which opened in 2017.
Ricks, 56 when she died in June 2019 from cancer, earned a PhD in education and worked in community outreach for LPCiminelli, then became compliance monitor on Buffalo’s $1 billion school reconstruction project.
Now, the City of Buffalo will designate on Aug. 30 the intersection of Broadway and Mortimer Street as Dr. Rhonda Ricks Way.
The location is the gateway to one of her signature projects, the Forge on Broadway, which opened recently.
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Another sign will be implemented at Sycamore and Mortimer streets on the other side of the Forge, a 158-unit affordable apartment building at 490 Broadway.
Mayor Byron W. Brown, Common Council President Darius G. Pridgen and State Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes made the announcement Friday at the site.
The $50.7 million project is the site of the former Buffalo Forge Manufacturing Company and includes a four-story building fronting on Broadway and an F-shaped portion behind it along Mortimer Street with three floors of apartments. The building features a mixture of one-, two- and three-bedroom units.
About 80% of the apartments are reserved for residents earning at or below 60% of the median income for a family of four in Erie County of $67,300.
The remaining 20% of the apartments will be for tenants earning at or below 80% of the median, or up to $87,490.
Together with developer Stuart Alexander's Miami-based SAA-EVI, Ricks created the mixed-use development plan for the former brownfield site, Brown said.
