Amid High-End Luxury, Builder Offers Affordable Solution

Despite building homes in some of the priciest suburbs in the nation, Valhalla, N.Y.-based Spectrum Skanska is delivering homes to New York-area buyers who often are priced out of the market: police officers, firefighters and teachers.

In its BelleFair community in Rye Brook, N.Y., where detached single-family homes range from $500,000 to $800,000, the company found room for 12 townhomes with an average sale price of $198,900. The townhomes, designated strictly for municipal employees of Rye Brook or teachers, were raffled.

Spectrum Skanska agreed to pay half — $143 — of the lottery winners’ common charges for their first year at BelleFair.

“That was an added benefit, a way to give back to the community,” says Gabe Pasquale, vice president and chief marketing officer for Spectrum Skanska. “What we did was provide them the opportunity to make their dreams come true.”

Lottery hopefuls had to fill out a pre-application verifying their residency, village employment and financial status to qualify for the drawing.

“We wouldn’t have been able to get the approval from the village of Rye Brook [for BelleFair] without offering these units,” Pasquale says.

Each of the 12 buyers “is living there because we were able to make this agreement,” he adds. “You can’t have great people working within your municipality if you can’t have a place for them to live.”