Mayor Bill de Blasio. Image Credit: Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office.

The new affordable housing is part of the de Blasio Administration’s efforts to end cluster site program. On December 4, 2018, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the progress made by the City for the acquisition and conversion of nearly 500 cluster units across 17 buildings into permanently affordable housing. The City’s plan is part of the administration’s initiative to address the homelessness crisis in New York City and is projected to provide housing for over 1,000 New Yorkers. (read more…)

Rendering of proposed buildings at 204 Avenue A (left) and 535 East 12th Street (right) in East Village, Manhattan. Image Credit: CPC.

Approval of the proposed project will provide housing to families that have been displaced for over ten years. On December 5, 2018, the City Planning Commission heard an application that would allow for the demolition of existing buildings on two City-owned lots and development of ten co-operative units at 204 Avenue A and eleven one-bedroom rental units at 535 East 12^th Street in Manhattan. The lots are located on the same block in the East Village, bounded by Avenue A, East 12^th Street, East 13^th Street, and Avenue B. To facilitate the proposed development, the applicant team requested approval for the disposition of the City-owned lots and designation and approval of the lots as an Urban Development Action Area Project.  The application was brought by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, along with the selected developer for the project, Juan Barahona of SMJ Development. (read more…)

Rendering of development. Image credit: HPD/Handel Architects LLP.

The mixed-use development will include affordable units, deployable food barriers, and retail frontage. On November 1, 2018, New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) announced that the start of construction of a block-sized development on Surf Avenue in Coney Island that will provide below-market-rate housing, retail, and office space to the community. The mixed-use development is projected to cost $253.9 million and will offer 446 affordable units, ranging from studios to two-bedrooms, to formerly homeless and low-income locals. The complex will have two other structures that will add approximately 500 more units of affordable housing, totaling nearly 1,000 units. The development is being led by HPD along with the Housing Development Corporation, BFC Partners, L+M Development Partners, and Taconic Investment Partners. (read more…)

Building owners denied certification may not significantly alter their buildings for five years. On October 12, 2018, the de Blasio Administration announced the application of the Certification of No Harassment (CONH) Pilot Program, which seeks to expand tenant harassment protections. The program will require buildings to meet certain criteria to certify that no previous tenant-harassment has occurred prior to obtaining construction permits for significant alterations to their property. CONH currently applies to more than 1,000 buildings, totaling to approximately 26,000 units protected under the program. (read more…)

Rendering of new development on Beach 21st Street. Image credit: HPD.

Project will provide large number of affordable housing to recently rezoned neighborhood. On July 11, 2018, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Council Member Donovan Richards announced the two projects in the Downtown Far Rockaway area that will create over 670 units of affordable housing following the Downtown Far Rockaway rezoning approval ten months ago. The project is also being led by the New York City Economic Development Corporation, Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Housing Development Corporation. (read more…)

Rendering of 1019 Fulton Street. Image credit: CPC.

Vacant land to be improved with mixed-use building. On May 23, 2018, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on a mixed-use project on 1019 Fulton Street in Brooklyn by the applicant team led by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development in a public-private partnership with Fulton Star LLC. The project will bring 50 mixed-income rental units to the Clinton Hill area with 15 of those units as permanently affordable. The project will also allow for ground floor commercial use. (read more…)