Some Albany streets are getting a facelift and our Megan Eaton was on hand as the final phase in a project to improve Arbor Hill got underway.

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ALBANY, N.Y. -- Melissa King has lived next to a vacant lot for years. She'll finally have neighbors in about six months.

"I am excited that they're finally doing something with the land," said Melissa King.

It's all thanks to the final stage of an eight year old funding plan.

"It comes out of the 2003 Arbor Hill Neighborhood plan it comes from local stakeholders it calls for the homeownership," said Albany Housing Authority Steven Longo.

As part of the almost $2.5 dollar project, 10 vacant lots will be turned into brand new homes. Each house will have a mortgage of more than $100,000.

"It's costing us more than that to build, we're writing down the construction cost with grants," added Longo.

Arbor Hill is primarily known as a low-income neighborhood. But the Housing Authority believes investing in homeownership will change that.

Said Longo, "We're not looking to create low income neighborhoods want to create diverse neighborhoods."

Neighbors are hopeful the project will improve the neighborhood physically, but some say community ties have been building behind closed doors for years.

"Out of that plan came a neighborhood association. And they meet several times a month and they have a quality of life committee," said Longo.

The project is already attracting interested buyers who say they, too, have seen the positive changes.

"This is not a bad area we're in at the moment, there's been a lot of changes," said Valerie Alexander, who is interested in a home.

The home next to King will be completed by February. The rest will be up by the fall of 2012.