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. (read more…)