Since the start of the national recession in 2008, "we have financed more affordable units—nearly 17,000—than any other US city or state," Bloomberg says in a statement. "Our administration is on track to build and preserve affordable housing for half a million New Yorkers by 2014, and we are as committed as ever to getting it done."
Launched in 2003, the NHMP was first envisioned as a five-year program to finance the construction or preservation of 65,000 affordable housing units. The plan was expanded four years ago to set the goal at 165,000 affordable units, each accommodating an average of three occupants. To date, the city has invested $4.5 billion in the program, and the New York City Housing Development Corp. has issued $5 billion in bonds.
Of the more than 100,000 units financed thus far, 33% were in Manhattan, mainly in East and Central Harlem. Another 32% were in the Bronx, 23% were in Brooklyn, 11% were in Queens and a little more than 1% were on Staten Island. Sixty-eight percent were rentals and homeownership units comprised the rest.
The project at which Bloomberg and other officials announced the 100,000-unit milestone was Via Verde, a $99-million joint venture among the city, Jonathan Rose Cos. and Phipps Housing Services. It will be built on a vacant 1.5-acre site at East 156th Street and Brook Avenue in the South Bronx, and is planned to supply 150 units of low-income rental housing and 71 affordable co-op units with retail, community and outdoor recreational space.
More than $60 million for construction costs and future rent subsidies are coming from the NYCHDC and its sister agency, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. The New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal is providing $32 million, and the remainder of the project is being paid for through a combination of private financing and funding from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the Bronx borough president's office and the City Council.
"With the completion of the 100,000th New Housing Marketplace Plan unit, New York City is 100,000 steps closer to making housing affordable for all New Yorkers," says Abby Jo Sigal, VP and New York director at Enterprise Community Partners, in a statement. "Even when the economy threw Mayor Bloomberg a curve ball, he and HPD engaged public and private partners to help keep the plan on track."
Enterprise provided $50,000 to help finance sustainable elements of the development as well as the design competition that gave rise to it, the New Housing New York Legacy Project.
Via Verde was the second stop in a series of groundbreakings or ribbon cuttings at affordable development sites in each of the five boroughs. For deputy mayor Robert Lieber, housing commissioner Rafael Cestero and HDC president Marc Jahr, the day began with a ceremony at True Colors, a supportive housing project for gay, lesbian and transgender youths now under construction on West 154th Street in Manhattan.
After visiting the Via Verde ceremony, the three then traveled to Queens for a ribbon cutting at Big Six, a nearly 900-unit Mitchell-Lama co-op on 47th Avenue. The next stop was Riverdale-Osborne, a former HUD multifamily complex on Watkins Street in the East New York section of Brooklyn. The final stop of the day for Lieber, Cestero and Jahr was Markham Gardens, a newly constructed, mixed-income townhouse community with both rental and homeowner units at 70 N. Burgher Ave. on Staten Island.
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Paul Bubny
Paul Bubny is managing editor of Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. He has been reporting on business since 1988 and on commercial real estate since 2007. He is based at ALM Real Estate Media Group's offices in New York City.
