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. (more…)

Developers would offer home ownership opportunities to low-income tenants displaced by twelve-story project. On February 16, 2011, the City Planning Commission heard testimony on the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s proposal to allow BFC Partners and the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB) to build a twelve-story affordable housing development in the East Village. The 65-unit project would replace two mixed-use buildings at 9 through 17 Second Avenue between East 1st and East Houston Streets. Thirteen apartments would be permanently affordable and marketed to households earning up to 80 percent of the area median income, and the remaining 52 would be offered as market-rate rental units. To facilitate the project, HPD requested a UDAAP designation and an amendment to the City’s Inclusionary Housing Program.

BFC owns a three-story building on the site at the corner of Second Avenue and East 1st Street. It is occupied by four residential tenants and two commercial tenants, including the Mars Bar saloon. UHAB owns a five-story building to the south that includes five residential tenants, three vacant units, and vacant ground floor space. BFC and UHAB plan to offer the buildings’ nine residential tenants the opportunity to purchase affordable units in the new building. (more…)