Tenants displaced by project can purchase or rent affordable apartments in new building. On April 6, 2011, the City Council approved the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s proposal to allow BFC Partners and The Urban Homesteading Assistance Board to redevelop three lots at the corner of Second Avenue and East 1st Street in the East Village. The development team will build a twelve-story, 79-unit affordable housing project with ground floor commercial  space. The project will replace two existing mixed-use buildings at 9 and 11-1 Second Avenue between East 1st and East Houston Streets.

Sixteen of the project’s apartments will be permanently affordable for households earning up to 80 percent of the area median income. The proposal amended the City’s Inclusionary Housing Program to permit nine tenants currently residing in the existing buildings to purchase or rent affordable units in the  new development. The four affordable units not reserved for the existing tenants will be sold to income-eligible individuals for $180,000 each.

Manhattan Community Board 3 and  Borough President Scott M. Stringer supported the proposal. The City Planning Commission unanimously approved the project. 8 CityLand 23 (March 15, 2011).

At the Council’s Planning, Dispositions & Concessions Subcommittee hearing no one spoke in opposition. The Subcommittee unanimously approved the project, and the Land Use Committee and full Council followed suit.

Review Process
Lead Agency: HPD, Neg. Dec. Comm. Bd.: MN 3, App’d, 36-0-0
Boro. Pres.: App’d
CPC: App’d, 12-0-0
Council: App’d, 47-0-0

Council: 9-17 Second Avenue  (April 6,2011) (Architect: GF55 Partners).