Affordable housing experts slam Sugar Hill development

Price tag of $500,000 per unit comes in above the cost of comparable projects, they say

A rendering of the Sugar Hill development
A rendering of the Sugar Hill development

The recently completed Sugar Hill Apartments brings a lot to West Harlem: 124 permanently affordable housing units, a children’s museum and pre-kindergarten facilities. But some say the cost of providing those neighborhood benefits was too high.

The price tag of $500,000 per unit at Sugar Hill comes in well above the cost of construction at similar projects, anonymous affordable housing experts told Crain’s. Such homes typically run between $300,000 and $400,000, the experts said.

Some have also questioned the provision of limited federal funds known as 9 percent tax credits to developer Broadway Housing Communities. They say those funds could have gone to developments whose costs aligned with the norm, reports Crain’s.

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The city said soil contamination and other development site conditions inflated costs at Sugar Hill, according to Crain’s. [Crain’s]Tom DiChristopher