NYCHA Chair and CEO Shola Olatoye. Image credit: NYCHA

Boerum Hill, Upper East Side developments to be developed under NextGeneration Neighborhoods program.  On September 10, 2015, the New York City Housing Authority announced that it will launch its NextGeneration Neighborhoods program at its Wyckoff Gardens and Holmes Towers sites, which are located in the Boerum Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn and the Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, respectively.  NextGen Neighborhoods, a NextGen NYCHA program, aims to build new residential units—50% affordable and 50% market-rate—on underutilized NYCHA property.

(more…)

David Farber, New York City Housing Authority General Counsel and Executive Vice-President for Legal Affairs. Image credit: NYCHA

David Farber was appointed New York City Housing Authority Executive Vice-President for Legal Affairs and General Counsel in August 2014.  When speaking with David, his clear love for New York City is readily apparent and supplemented by a driving desire to leave the city better than he found it.  Turning 50 this year, David has spent the majority of his professional career in service to his city with great satisfaction.

Born in Manhattan and raised in Yorktown, Westchester County, David’s parents imparted both a love of New York and a tradition of civic responsibility to David.  After retirement, David’s father worked as a math teacher in a Bronx high school for five years, while his mother was a social worker.  David spent a childhood in music, playing the violin through his twenties but setting it aside in later years, and made trips to the Bronx when he could to see the Yankees play.  “As soon as I could drive, my best friend and I would drive down to Yankee games, but worry about where we were going to park the car.”

(more…)

Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito delivers her State Of The City address. Image credit: William Alatriste/New York City Council

The Council Speaker announced $250 million for NYCHA and called on Albany to match the funds.  On February 11, 2015 City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito delivered her first State of the City address at the Johnson Community Center in East Harlem.  As part of the address’ overall theme to “lift every voice”, the Speaker announced a plan to commit $225 million in capital funding for the New York City Housing Authority to improve conditions in public housing buildings.

(more…)

The City Council holds an oversight hearing on NYCHA’s public-private partnership agreement. Image credit: CityLand

NYCHA Chairwoman Shola Olatoye answered questions on the Triboro Preservation Partners agreement.  On February 10, 2015 the City Council Committee on Public Housing held an oversight hearing on Triborough Preservation Partners, a public-private agreement between the New York City Housing Authority, L+M Development Partners, and BFC Partners. The venture was designed to rehabilitate six of NYCHA’s Section 8 properties containing nine hundred units: Bronxchester Houses, Saratoga Square, Campos Plaza, Milbank-Frawley, East 4th Street, and East 120th Street.  Under the terms of the agreement, L+M and BFC own a fifty percent stake in the properties over the next thirty years.

(more…)

Credit: Magnusson Architecture and Planning

NYCHA-proposed rezoning would facilitate development of two eight-story buildings and 16 attached duplexes on an underutilized parking lot. On August 22, 2012, the City Planning Commission approved NYCHA’s proposal to develop a 238-unit, multi-building affordable housing project in the Soundview section of the Bronx. The 155,000-square-foot project site is on the southeastern edge of a block bounded by Randall, Bronx River, Lacombe, and Rosedale Avenues. NYCHA’s 13-building Soundview Houses housing complex is north of the site, and the 205-acre Soundview Park lies to the southwest of the site. A portion of the project site is occupied by an underutilized 120-space parking lot used by the Soundview Houses.

NYCHA selected CPC Resources and Lemle & Wolff to develop the project. The project would include two eight-story apartment buildings, 16 attached two-family homes, and a total of 79 parking spaces. One eight-story building would include 85 one-bedroom units exclusively available for rent by senior citizens aged 55 and older, and one three-bedroom unit for a superintendent. A second eight-story building would provide a total of 120 rental units, and include a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments. Both buildings would be marketed to persons earning 60 percent or less of the area median income. The proposed two-family duplexes would include a three-bedroom unit and a two-bedroom rental unit. NYCHA intends to make each unit available for purchase to persons earning 100 percent of the area median income. (more…)