Ader Group plans 474-unit affordable development in the Bronx

Monsey-based real estate firm the Ader Group is looking to bring a 474-unit affordable housing development to the South Bronx.

Renderings for the project at 1125 Whitlock Avenue show a two-building development on a site currently occupied by car garages. The 473,000-square-foot development will be comprised of two buildings: One building will have 243 apartments plus 9,520 square feet of community space. The second building will have 231 apartments and 14,937 square feet of ground-floor retail. The development will also have a 69-space parking garage, according to New York YIMBY.

Renderings of the 14-story buildings show solar panels and roof decks.

Construction on the project — which will set aside 95 units for homeless families — is set to start in June 2017. The first building is set to be complete by June 2019. The second is set to be complete by 2021.

The area is currently zoned for industrial and commercial development. But the developer hopes to rezone the area near the Sheridan Expressway along the Bronx River in order to build mixed-use buildings as tall as 120 feet. The proposal must go through a seven-month public review process.

Last month, the de Blasio administration said there were 21,963 units of below-market housing built or preserved in 2016, the most in nearly three decades. In the past three years, funding for the city’s housing agency doubled to $798 million this year from $400 million in 2014.

Meanwhile, Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently introduced a bill that would revive a key affordable housing tax credit — 421a — now called Affordable New York. But the legislation could cost the city an extra $820 million over 10 years, according to an analysis by the city.  [NY YIMBY] — E.B. Solomont