Councilman Jeff Russell, R-At Large, had questions about the Gateway Lofts project during the City Council’s most recent meeting.

He’ll have a chance to get answers to those questions from the Gateway Lofts project team this week. After multiple other presentations and discussions regarding the Gateway Lofts project, which has been working to get going in the city for a few years, Southern Tier Environments for Living is bringing the project to the City Council on Monday for a presentation and to answer questions.

STEL team members have presented to both the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals and Planning Commission, receiving approval to go ahead on the project from both. The City Council’s work session agenda for Monday night’s meeting now has STEL scheduled to come before the City Council.

STEL is proposing to renovate the Gateway Center, which is the former Chautauqua Hardware factory, at 31 Water St., into a 110 unit, multi-family affordable housing complex, which will be anchored by supportive wrap-around services. Of the 110 units, 56 units will be for individuals with special needs. The multi-million project is a collaboration among Community Helping Hands, the YWCA of Jamestown, and STEL, and has been in the works since 2020. In 2020, the project was expected to cost $42 million. Since then, the project cost has risen to $77 million.

During the last work session of the City Council, a resolution looking to have the city reallocate $640,000 to the project was discussed, which also includes a clause where STEL will be providing the city with $355,000 for city-wide demolition projects. Concerns about the project and the funding were discussed at the time, along with the fact that the project is looking to help with multiple ongoing issues in the city, including homelessness, substance abuse and mental health.

Many of the questions at the latest meeting were said to be better able to be answered in STEL’s presentation and by their representatives at Monday’s work session.

The City Council’s Housing Committee will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the police training room on the fourth floor of City Hall followed by 7 p.m. meetings of the council’s Finance Committee (mayor’s fourth floor conference room), Public Safety Committee (police training room) and Public Works Committee (Development Department conference room). The whole council will have a work session at 7:30 p.m. in the police training room.