Senior apartment complex to have ribbon-cutting on Thursday

The completion of a 90-unit senior apartment complex is scheduled to be commemorated at 3 p.m. Thursday.

Dubbed AHEPA 302 Apartments, the Y-shaped building was completed with the aid of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and San Bernardino Economic Development Agency. The building is on Gilbert Street, east of Waterman Avenue.

The dominant color inside the concept is a yellow that looks like sunlight filtered through clouds in the minutes before dusk. The smell of new carpet still hangs around the rooms.

Construction cost $12.7 million said Tony Theodorou, president AHEPA 302 Inc., the corporation behind the project. AHEPA is an acronym for American Hellenic Educations Progressive Association and the company was formed from the group's local chapter.

Theodorou said AHEPA was founded in 1922 in Atlanta to aid Greek and other Mediterranean immigrants assimilate into United States society. He said modern-day AHEPA awards scholarships and creates companies to develop senior housing projects.

The San Bernardino complex represents AHEPA's 76th completed project, and Theodorou said the building is association's first such complex on the West Coast. AHEPA has projects planned at 12 other sites.