The Binghampton Development Corporation helped form and capitalize the for-profit Tillman Apartments, Inc. in October, 2006 to purchase, redevelop and manage a 20 unit apartment complex located at 219 Tillman in Binghampton.  The apartments were severely blighted and harbored significant drug trafficking and prostitution.  Many residents lived in the units without utilities and in inhumane conditions in a place known in the area as Bologna Land or just the Hole.  Binghampton residents sought help to resolve this visible blight on the community.

A plan and an operating partnership emerged between the BDC, Tillman Apartments, and the Church Health Center to redevelop the property for independent senior living with a supporting set of social services.  Nearly $500,000 in funding came from individual gifts, the BDC and a $275,000 loan to fund the renovation of the property.  The entire property underwent an extreme makeover as significant security, landscaping and parking improvements leveraged interior and exterior repairs to create an attractive, affordable housing alternative for area seniors. 

The BDC will complete the final phase of construction and a small laundry by the end of December, 2007.  Already half of the units have new residents.  All of the residents support and are engaged in the apartment resident association and enthusiastically support the new Hope Community name.