YONKERS – An affordable housing complex has been razed for the latest phase of a public housing overhaul.

Demolition crews brought down the former townhouse complex at 209 Warburton Ave. on Aug. 28 and 29 to make way for the Villas at the Ridgeway, the third phase of the Cottage Place Gardens revitalization that will include 70 units of townhouse-style affordable housing.

The $41.9 million project will also replace 56 units of housing in three buildings at 8 Cottage Place Gardens, which date to the 1940s. The work includes the rehabilitation of the New Little Branches/Lanza Learning Center at 150 Woodworth Ave. and environmental clean-up of contaminated land.

According to city property records, the 21-unit townhouses at 209 Warburton date to the early 1970s and they were originally built under the Mitchell-Lama program, a state initiative launched in 1955 to create affordable rental and cooperative housing for moderate- to middle-income families.

The Villas at the Ridgeway are being built by The Community Builders, a non-profit real estate developer that owns or manages more than 11,000 affordable housing units. The Community Builders previously worked with the Municipal Housing Authority for the City of Yonkers on the construction of new housing at 188 Warburton Ave. and on Schoolhouse Terrace at 43 Ashburton Ave.

The 70 new units of affordable housing will be built in four buildings. Two will be on the Cottage Place Gardens campus and two at 209 Warburton Ave.

Construction of the modules that will be placed at 209 Warburton Ave. has already begun and the construction is expected to be done by the spring of 2019, according to The Community Builders.

Phase III of the Cottage Place Gardens overhaul is a separate initiative from a massive makeover of most of the housing authority’s units, which is ongoing.