Charlie Adams
Regional vice president, Pennrose
Industry experience: 25 years
Pennrose is carving out of a niche as a developer of senior housing for the LGBTQ community. The Philadelphia company has a half-century of experience focusing on the affordable housing segment of the industry before completing its first LGBTQ-focused community, the John C. Anderson Apartments in Philadelphia, in 2015. The firm is eyeing Connecticut for similar ventures, while it continues its progress on mixed-income projects in Hartford and Torrington. Charlie Adams leads Pennrose’ New England region division.
Q: How successful was the 2015 launch of Pennrose’s original LGBTQ-focused community in Philadelphia and how has that project guided your approach to future projects?
A: It was tremendously successful and it’s a mix of folks that identify as LGBTQ and people who don’t. It’s really about people who are welcoming and accepting of the LGBTQ community. About 70 to 80 percent identify as LGBTQ. That’s pretty consistent through the projects that are done throughout the country. They are independent senior living units and the emphasis is really on making sure that our staff is culturally competent. One of the things we found, particularly with our experience at John C. Anderson Apartments, is that it’s become such a robust community, more so than other places. The community feels connected and does a lot of things together, so community spaces became really important. The outdoor garden became important and the residents themselves take ownership.
Q: What markets in Connecticut do you think have potential for similar projects?
A: Connecticut is one of the other areas that Pennrose is looking at and I think New Haven might be the right community for that given that it’s a large urban area that’s pretty robust and fairly progressive.
Q: Pennrose is partnering with the Hartford Housing Authority on a mixed-income redevelopment which will be known as the Village at Park River. What’s the current stage of construction?
A: There are seven phases. It’ll be 430 units, and because it’s such a large site on the front part of the parcel on Albany Avenue there will be 100,000 square feet of retail. We’re waiting for various opportunities. We had some interest pre-COVID and we’re hoping to make some forward progress next year. We’ve got 135 [housing] units occupied, and will lease up the next 65 units toward the end of the year. We’ll lease up the third phase and start construction of the fourth phase at the same time.
Q: How does the redevelopment change the layout and public realm of the property?
A: It’s a 40-acre site with 316 units in 80 different buildings, with two loop roads. There was no connectivity and so we tried to create a neighborhood with a grid pattern of streets. It’s a long site and we’ll create a neighborhood feel with townhomes and stacked flats, front porches, bike lanes and complete streets.
Q: What’s the history of the former Torrington Manufacturing Co. property where you recently broke ground on a 60-unit mixed-income development called Riverfront?
A: It was a contaminated site for many years that the city got control over and was mostly demolished and they put it out as a request for proposals, did the cleanup and handed it off to us.
Q: What’s next in Pennrose’s New England pipeline?
A: The LGBTQ model is the thing we’d like to move forward on and like to do in Connecticut, and we do a lot of work with historic assets and there are a lot of opportunities. We haven’t been able to identify that partner [for LGBTQ projects] in New Haven or Connecticut, so it would be great to find a partner to help us move that along.
Adams’ Five Favorite Movies
- The Paper
- Slumdog Millionaire
- Shawshank Redemption
- Stand By Me
- Places in the Heart
