City taps developers for 100% affordable Far West Side project

Radson Development, Kingspoint Heights Development plan 234-unit mixed-use tower with 200K sf of office space

A rendering of 495 11th Avenue (credit: Radson Development
A rendering of 495 11th Avenue (credit: Radson Development

The New York City Economic Development Corporation selected the partnership of Radson Development and Kingspoint Heights Development to build a mixed-use complex with 200,000 square feet of office space and 234 completely affordable apartment units on a city-owned site on the Far West Side.

The Long Island-based Radson, which focuses on affordable housing in the Bronx, and Kingspoint submitted the winning proposal to develop the mixed-use tower on the site of a New York Police Department parking lot at 495 11th Avenue, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The EDC in August 2015 sent out a request for proposals for the site as part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s goal to build 80,000 units of affordable housing and preserve another 120,000 units.

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Radson and Kingspoint submitted a plan to build 200,000 square feet of office space, 80,000 square feet of dorms, a 12,000-square-foot grocery store and a parking facility for the police department. The commercial space will subsidize the affordable apartments.

“To get a 100% affordable housing project on a city-owned site is huge for this district,” local Council Member Corey Johnson told the Journal. “The area has become a lot more expensive and there is not enough affordable housing being produced.”

The project still has to make its way through the city’s zoning process, and the developers plan to break ground in the fall of 2019, with an expected completion date in late 2022. [WSJ]Rich Bockmann